Tomorrow Titans, The Next Generation
by The Amazing Shrinking Violet
Summary: A look into a possible future of the Teen Titans, with new heroes, new villains, and new people and places.  Shared Universe, OCs, some crude humor and violence present.
1. Charnel House: Prelude to the Beginning

Tomorrow Titans – The Next Generation

Saga Arc #1: Charnel House

Prologue: "Prelude to the Beginning"

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters present within these pages…I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners – DC comics, Marvel Comics, the BBC, Hasbro, and others, as well as some characters created by fellow writers, such as Black Panther's Knight (the name he went by at the time of this writing, anyways), and others I know. Every one of those characters, I ask the permission of their creators before using them here, in case you're wondering. Now, not all of those characters and concepts appear in their original form, and some will. I'm not making any profit off of this, and I don't intend to at any point in the future, either – this is just for the enjoyment of others.

Author's Note: This fanfic is placed in the shared universe I spun off from JBWriter's stuff, but has its own unique qualities and concepts. However, some people will inevitably notice (at some point in the future when all of my fanfics are written and published) that some of the concepts and characters present in stories set in the timeline aren't present here. The answer there will be in the last of my present-day set fanfics, or at an earlier-date one, to explain the momentarily large amount of crossovers I've written, and intend to write.

* * *

2010: The end of an era. The end of the Titans. 

However, it was not a physical, actual loss…more of a decision to end the team as it was, to create a new team, a larger team – not that the old team could get much bigger, considering the number of honorary Titans – but this meeting was to be the last in this building…the new team had a bigger headquarters, in a more subdued-looking estate, rather than the styled T-shaped tower they had grown so fond of. A necessary evil, one could say.

Nightwing, the team leader, regarded his long-time friends, and sighed softly, running a hand through his long, jet-black hair, regarding everyone. It wasn't like he wouldn't see them anymore, but it still felt like it was a somber occasion. And it had been a heck of a ride while it lasted. The problem was this new organization would have less room for what had made the Titans the Titans. It would have to be more mature, more serious, and more supervised. No more late nights playing video games, arm wrestling, or ordering massive quantities of pizza. No, now they had to be professional in order to compete with the other members of the adult superhero community – they didn't want to be regarded as children forever. Not that Nightwing had truly grasped what it had been like to be a child, not for a long time, after the death of his parents that fateful night, and his induction into crime fighting as the first Robin, Boy Wonder.

Sitting across from him was Raven, a girl who had always struck him as odd. Granted, she was a bit odd, but she was nice, when she chose to be. When they first assembled, she was so cold and distant. Things with Terra hadn't gone over well with her, but the new friend they had made after that made things better, it seemed. And now, some time after her father's dead at her hands, she had been more free with her emotions, and that friend became a boyfriend, and later fiancé.

That friend, that fiancé, was Spider-Man, though right now he had his mask off, acting normally for him, his hair still semi-long and a little shaggy now, his brown eyes blinked rapidly as he and Changeling fought over the last slice of Pizza, the green skinned young man, and the wall-crawler each giving each other fierce, though amusing, glares. Finally Spider-Man got the piece, and did a victory sign, grinning as he wolfed it down, only to receive a sharp nudge in the side from his soon-to-be-wife, grunting a bit. "What?" Nothing. "What?" Again, nothing. "What?"

"Peter…stop acting like such a child."

"I know you are but what am I?"

"Damnit, Peter…" Raven sighed, rubbing her pale forehead, lightly caressing her chakra gem and trying to calm herself – even if she loved the man, he was completely infuriating and charming at the same time, so even now when she was mad at him, she wouldn't turn him away when they went back to his place. The thought made her blush, and a faint snicker could be heard, from Changeling, at which point she gave him her best, four-eyed glare, quickly silencing. "Garfield…" she used his real name, warningly, and narrowed her eyes at him. The black and purple clad young man squeaked, and began to sweat.

"S-sorry, Rave…" he apologized, causing Starfire to giggle and Cyborg to chuckle. Changeling's little snicker fit had been due to the obvious effect thinking about her beau had on Raven's body temperature, something Cyborg didn't need his little green buddy to figure out. Nightwing had his mouth covered, which made him look very serious, but secretly he was smiling himself, and just trying to hide that from his team, to keep up the appearance of a serious individual…at least until it was Starfire's turn to nudge him in the side, surprising him.

"I know you are laughing…" She whispered to him, smiling a bit. She had lost some of her old habits, namely her speech patterns, but still managed to not use contractions at times. "You don't need to hide it…"

"I know, Kori, I know." He smiled back at her, after moving his hands from his face and sighing softly. The two had been seeing each other for a while now, but hadn't taken their relationship to the same level as Spider-Man and Raven, but then, Nightwing had problems with commitments sometimes, or at least the emotional ones. Now it was time to snicker at their leader, even Raven joining in as Changeling and Spider-Man made kissy faces at him, and even Cyborg had a laugh at it. "Alright you three, knock it off." Nightwing finally said, giving them an authoritative look as the laughing died down, and everything went serious. "The reason I'm calling this meeting is, basically, we're dissolving the Titans, as of now. I'm sure I don't need to go over this again, at least not in too much – the government is funding us now, and we're going to have to be more mature about this…which I know is a strain for some of our members whose names I don't need to mention…" This elicited a bit of groaning from the more immature members, who looked discontented from that bit of information. "We're also expanding our membership, and we're not going to be just teens anymore. We're going to be the New Titans."

"Nice name." Raven commented dryly, smiling a bit to herself as she covered the lower half of her face with one of her books, which she had brought just for that purpose, pretending to read it – her fiancé was becoming quite the influence on the pale girl indeed. Nightwing chose to ignore the hint of humor in her voice, and rose up, planting his hands firmly on the table before him.

"As a result, like I told everyone else earlier, we have to move out of the tower, but we're going to keep it as a fallback base, just in case, so it'll have a skeleton crew taking care of it, and this is where most of the honorary members will stay until their rooms are furnished in the new HQ."

"I like what I hear, leader man." Spider-Man leaned back in his chair, planting his booted feet on the surface of the table, grinning a bit in his usual, disarmingly pleasant fashion, two long bangs hanging down alongside his face. "So it's still business as usual?"

"Business as usual." The team leader nodded, smiling a bit. "I just…wanted us to have one last night here, before we have to go ourselves…"

"That's cool, you don't need to explain it to us, 'wing." Changeling nodded a bit himself. "This place was our home for years. In a way, it will always be our home. So…here's to us, huh?"

"To us."

Everyone shared in the thought, and Nightwing walked over to the fridge, peering in. Thankfully, none of Kori's food was in there, nor were there any living mold monsters. He took out a bottle of Pepsi, and headed back to the table, pouring some into each person's glass, as they settled down for a long night in the Tower, full of reminiscing.

* * *

2020. The beginning of a new era…but not the one you're thinking of. 

In a secret installation that belonged to A.I.M, or Advanced Idea Mechanics, a top-secret project was underway, and today was the final day of work, when it would be activated, and the process of assimilating the instincts and minds of 106 specific individuals would begin. Doctor Evelyn Necker, the head of the Minion project, was slightly nervous, tugging on her long red longs and fussing a bit with her green body suit, before sitting down as the Minion capsule was loaded into the room which would become its defacto home.

The cybernetic being inside the capsule had a blue upper torso, with one arm having two gold bands on the upper arm, the other a solid sky blue blue, with red cables covering the sides of the abdomen, similar cables connecting from the back of the machine-man to the large-ish, skull-like head, two horns coming off from the side, the lower torso also blue, each part of the body bearing thin segment lines. The mismatched cybernetic eyes were closed, though soon they would open as the robotic Minion would soon awaken.

Minion was created to protect A.I.M from an unknown future threat that their precogs had revealed to them…however the details were so vague, they had no clue what it looked like or what it could do, just that it intended to wipe out A.I.M utterly. And so the organization had sunk millions, if not billions, of dollars into this cybernetic entity, giving it all the latest high-tech materials they could – the solid blue arm could morph from a hand to a cannon to a blade, which was used to extract the information needed from the mind of the subjects Minion was to seek out, both through time AND space.

When the capsule was set down in its new housing, it was activated, and Minion's eyes opened. Its first words weren't very profound, but they were memorable – "Minion unit activated…searching…awaiting orders." The robot was a blank slate at the moment, though that would change in time…

* * *

Sometime later, but still 2020. 

SKKKZZZT!

"Here he comes now…Minion…"

On the Time Jump platform, Minion came into view, blade arm still extended from his last assimilation.

"…That's far enough! Your deviant behavior concerns me greatly. Report for a thorough systems check!" Necker was confident her creation would listen. To her surprise, he did not.

"No time…" He started. "…I've absorbed subject 104, Lehdrox. Check me over quickly so I can make the next trip." The way the machine spoke to her rattled his creator, but also infuriated her at the same time.

"No go, Minion. We've sunk billions into your creation to protect us from some as of yet unknown future threat. We must be sure you function perfectly."

"Just do it Doctor." Minion's voice was almost threatening, the personalities he'd been assimilating beginning to alter his AI mind, and not for the better in this case. Then one of the 'underlings' spoke up, panicked.

"Doctor Necker! We're registering a massive power surge on the roof level!"

KRA-TISHHHH!

Smashing through the rooftop skylight was the mercenary bounty-hunter and freelance peacekeeping agent Death's Head, another advanced Cyborg, though not exactly as new as Minion, in regards of experience. He too had horns on his head, these protruding upwards and colored red, with a chromed silver face with 'eyebrows' and mouth horns, with a yellow and silver upper torso, silvered arms, blue and red forearms, silvered legs with blue boots, and wearing a brown trenchcoat and carrying a large handgun and rifle.

"Found you, yes?" He commented as he fell to the ground, landing in a crouch. "Now you're going to pay in full!" He quipped, aiming the pistol at Minion, and firing it, shooting the other mechanoid in the chin and knocking his head back. Necker was at the point where she could panic, but that wouldn't get anything done; instead, she hit her communicator, and began speaking, rapidfire barking of orders.

"Necker to all security fireteams! Emergency in the Weapons Construct Chamber! Move it!" she indeed barked, a fierce look on her face as the room became a warzone in a matter of seconds.

Death's Head was standing over the fallen Minion, left hand in his trenchcoat pocket, aiming his gun at the other machine. "You cheated me of Tyler. Can't get no three million now, but I can get satisfaction, yes?"

Minion growled softly, starting to get up, lifting himself up with his arms. "Ahhhh…don't struggle. It'll be easier for you…"

"Kidding, yes?" Death's Head shot back, his electronic vocals sounding amused at Minion's remark, still holding the gun on him.

Minion stood, some of the wires connected to his head severed and sparking, his skull-face looking fierce and determined, a piece of the 'jaw' broke off from his fight with Lehdrox earlier, face spattered with blood and other fluids. "Do I look like I'm kidding?" With that, the blue robot rushed forward, extending his right fist as his left arm transformed into its cannon mode, the fist tearing into Death's Head's abdomen, where the stomach would be on a human.

SKRR-ANCH!

"AAARGH!" Death's Head roared as he and Minion flew backwards, over the heads of the armed security force that had just arrived, finally coming to a stop when they smashed into a group of fleeing scientists and some machinery.

KRA-CHUNK!

The two stood, optical sensor to optical sensor.

"I admire your guts, Death's Head."

"You haven't seen them yet…" the bounty hunter remarked, the fist still lodged in his chest. Minion replied, and if he had a true face, he would be smirking with an almost evil glee now.

"YET!" And with that, he yanked his fist out of Death's Head's chest, tearing a deep gash into his outer casing and armor.

THRATCH!

As the freelance peacekeeper fell to the floor, his own forearm blade extended from his left arm, and he stabbed Minion through the stomach area, which sent a jolt of energy through the cyborg.

"RAAH!"

With that done, Minion glared at Death's Head, and punched down, ripping off the other robot's left arm past the wrist, then struck him in the side of the head with the ridged, 'clawed' barrel of his gun arm.

SKRUNCH!

The impact tore through the right side of the robot's head, tearing away his outer 'face,' right eye, and head horn, sending the components flying through the air. Death's Head fell back, crouched on his knees, arms keeping him from falling down, as Minion approached, his gun arm morphing into a multi-pronged blade. "Good fight, but it ends here."

Death's Head turned to see his attacker, and felt no fear, but a sense of rage, that these would be his final moments, one arm severed and tossed aside, his head damaged at nearly 45 percent of it gone. "Uuunnff…NO!"

"YES!" Minion roared, slashing up with his arm and taking Death's Head damaged head off cleanly with a gush of fluids. Minion caught the damaged side of the head by the wires, arm blade morphing into the assimilation weapon. "Subject 105 Death's Head…" Minion intoned, raising his arm back, then punched it through the back of the head. "…Instincts assimilated."

KKZZZMM!

Then something…problematic happened.

"I don't…something wrong…AAARRRGGGHH!" Minion let out a scream as a powerful current coursed through him, striking him directly in the processor and electronic brain of the advanced fighting machine, flowing from Death's Head's now-empty head and into Minion, beginning to override his systems. One of the scientists began to speak, in worried tones.

"His systems are overloading! There's something wrong with the last implant! I'm losing Central Command! Doctor Necker?!" the redhead then began to panic, and called out to her creation, worriedly.

"Minion? Minion…Answer me!"

Minion's blade began to split up, first into five long claws, then into five fingers, while smoke emerged from his right eye. "I can't…I…help me..." He reached out with his left hand, still spewing that acrid smoke, before something else happened, and another jolt went through him. "KZZZTT…subject 106. Targeting locked on." The blue and red cyborg then began to move, making his way to the Time Jump platform, staggering with each step.

"Minion? Answer me! What's going on?" Necker wasn't about to give into hysteria, but damned if it wasn't the right time to, considering what had just happened, that all her work could be gone, and her 'masters' in charge of A.I.M. would be very, very angry with her, to say the very least.

KZZZTT!

"-I'll be back, yes?" Minion quipped in a familiar tone, before beginning to vanish before Necker's eyes.

"Teleport! He's going! Stop him!"

NOW she was about to give in to her hysteria…

"Get a fix on him! Where's he going?"

"Time dilation reads as destination earth circa 2005. He's gone after the last target, Doctor." One of the lab techs said. Necker sighed, and removed her monocular head piece.

"The council'll string me up if we lost him. Reset the Time Jump. I'm going after him." As she spoke, Necker removed her bodysuit, and began putting on another outfit, this one made for time travel, not one bit concerned about her appearance – everyone here was a professional, so even though she was very attractive, no one ogled her. "Who IS the last target?" She asked as she finished getting dressed, a spikey haired tech replying to her question while checking some equipment.

"According to this, subject 106 is a human named…Reed Richards."

* * *

Necker chased Minion back to the not-so-distant past, and aided Reed Richards in escaping from her crazed killing machine, and not even the appearance of the team's ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing could halt Minion, who merely swatted Ben aside with superior firepower and chased Necker and Reed all the way to Four Freedoms Plaza. 

They beat him there, though, and there was enough time for Reed to prepare a ray. Necker had briefed her on what Minion was and why he was there, and realized that it wasn't just Death's Head instincts Minion had, but the bounty hunter's ENTIRE mind and personality, which had overwhelmed the robot, and driven it a little mad. By the time Minion arrived, the ray – whose purpose was to allow Death's Head's mind to take control, and erase the conflict that was tearing Minion's mind apart. Richards managed to get it working, and hit Minion full on.

Richards stood above, but a ways way from the fallen, shorted out Minion, turning to Necker.

"With any luck, when his neurons unscramble, Death's Head's consciousness will be the first to regroup…"

"First? You mean it may not be permanent?" Necker was puzzled, as she believed the ray would permanently solve the problem the malfunction construct posed.

"Hard to say. Death's Head? Can you hear me?" Richards called out, as Minion began to stand, his mind coming into crystal clarity.

"Remember….yesssss…" Then an odd, almost distorted voice came from Minion's mouth. "Richard's department store…..open Ten 'till late – for that……perfect Christmas gift! " Necker was highly doubtful as she regarded the scientist, a confounded expression on her face.

"That doesn't sound like Death's Head to me…" Reed just shook his head and responded to her, in an almost scholarly tone.

"Don't worry – his mind's still shaken up…I think the process is working!"

"Working?" Then came that moment of near-hysteria for Necker again, a worried and disbelieving expression on her face. "I've got to make that cyborg capable of protecting the whole A.I.M organization!" Then, in a lower tone, almost a whisper… "You've ruined my project…" Now it was Richards' turn to look disbelieving, and understandably upset.

"You say I've ruined your project?! When you programmed a cyborg to kill me!" Then Minion...if the cyborg could still be called that, as it was Death's Head mind that was controlling the advanced battle body now…strolled past the arguing Necker and Richards, and headed straight for a large dataport on Richard's computer.

"-Nobody needs to die, yes? Computer Mainframe contains all data known to Reed Richards…I shall assimilate that…" The cyborg then plugged its arm in, and began downloading into his computerized synthethic brain. Necker could only watch in awe.

"It HAS worked…you've brought Death's Head consciousness to the surface…he hasn't overridden Minion's compulsion to assimilate your knowledge…but he's doing it WITHOUT killing you!"

Minion then turned to the two scientists, and nodded to Richards' sagely. "Fair exchange, yes? You save my consciousness, I save yours! Farewell, Richards!" As he spoke, a Time Jump activated again, and Minion/Death's Head begin to vanish from sight.

KZZZAKT!

Necker nearly panicked again, and moved away from Richards'. "No! He's gone…time-jumped before I could stop him! I must go after him."

"Be careful, Necker…His mind's still unstable!" Reed couldn't help but warn the redhead, as it was part of his heroic nature.

"I must catch him, or everything is lost!" She put her mask back on, and triggered the jump herself, looking back to Reed, smiling under the gas mask-like device. "At least you're safe! Remember me fondly, Reed…It's been wild."

And with that, Necker was gone, leaving Reed to explain things to his friends and family as they began to rush into the room, the intrusion into the building setting off all manner of alarms.

* * *

And that had been the moment when Minion became the being known as Death's Head II, more commonly just Death's Head or DH. He had a number of adventures after that, taking up the occasional heroic cause and the such, until one fateful day, when he had encountered…or more accurately, re-encountered…an old friend, the Gallifreyan Time Lord known only as the enigmatic Doctor. The two ended up becoming partners of sorts for a short time, then met again when the Doctor's old enemy, the Master, appeared and began to reorganize the Society, a number of Justice League and Avengers villains, expanding his recruitment drive. When the Master was finally locked away for good, the Doctor convinced Death's Head to join what was being called the Alliance, a unification of all super hero groups into one organization with sub-groupings and the like.

* * *

2030. 

And he'd been there ever since.

Now Death's Head was faced by Superman and Captain America, two of the most prolific heroes in the organization, though the public still called the groups the Justice League, and the Avengers, and so on. Or at least, the successors to the names Superman and Captain America, who were really Superman's clone, the former Superboy, Conner Kent/Kon-El, and Bucky Barnes, who for a time was the mentally altered assassin Winter Soldier…as such, this new Captain America, who wore an altered costume that was mostly black with some blue, white and red, was more forgiving of Death's Head's violent methods of 'conflict resolution'. Superman, however, was more harsh to the former mercenary-turned-adventurer. And that was showing now.

Death's Head was on probation, for causing a series of devastating explosions in Metropolis in a recent battle, and racked up quite the bit of property damage, and earned him a bad reputation amongst the civilians in the city, who were pretty forgiving normally. Perhaps it was the cyborg's harsh appearance, as he wasn't exactly kid-friendly, nor did he act like it. Instead he preferred to kick ass first and take names second, with little concern to his public image. But now, things had gotten out of hand, and his future in the group was in question. And so, here he was, about to be punished. Silent he was hoping he'd be kicked out of the team so he could go out on his own again…Even his sidekick-of-sorts, Tuck, was getting tired of his heroic streak, and it was because of his willing to take up an equal rights cause on a technophobic planet that won her over to him.

However, the conversation seemed to take a turn for the worse for the former mercenary, when the sentence "We'd like you to help out the kids…" came from the Star-Spangled Avenger.

"What the hell?" Death's Head blurted at that. "You're kidding, yes? You don't expect me to baby-sit, do you? And…I should've asked this first…what kids?"

Superman sighed, and crossed his arms over his red and black S shield. "The new generation of heroes, the new Teen Titans. They're forming in about three days, with the blessing of their parents. However, we want you there with them, even if all you do is support staffing…"

"Oh hell no! I most certainly will NOT baby-sit a bunch of teenager hero wannabes! I can barely stand you lot!"

"You didn't let me finish…" Superman said, rather darkly. Darkly enough that it convinced Death's Head to quiet down. "If you choose not to help them, we'll have you deactivated and put in cold storage for the foreseeable future. Indefinately." Captain America nodded, revealing a control device in one palm of his hand, causing the peacekeeper to sigh deeply.

"Very well…twisted my arm, yes? I'll help them…no matter who stupid the job is. But I warn you…you'd better keep that controller handy, because the moment you let it go, I will take it, and I will break it, and you won't be able to stop me…because I can take you, Superman. I have in training, and I will in a real fight…" The warning was completely serious, and Superman stood up to Death's Head, no fear in his eyes.

"Duly noted, Death's Head…duly noted.

* * *

And now here he was, moving his things into the old Titans Tower, sighing a bit as he finished unloading into Cyborg's old room, the maintenance bed and everything still there. "It'll take some doing, but I can move in here, I suppose. It isn't too bad, and it has nearly everything I need…and I see they've been upgrading over the past ten, twenty years. Good for them. Now I won't have to hurt someone to get me what I need here." As he continued unpacking, a blip sounded in his ear, and he grunted, setting down a heavy metal box. "Oh my…the stars of the show have arrived, yes?" 

Death's Head then left his new room, and entered the main room of the Tower, running his fingers along the dust covered walls, and grunted again. "This is ridiculous, yes? Certainly need a better housekeeper here."

He continued walking, and entered the room, surprised to see two teenaged girls there – one wore a black t-shirt with purple pants, and had green skin, and dark green hair with blood bangs, and sharp teeth, and another wearing a dark purple top with stylized blue bird wings on the top, and wearing a pair of dark purple short shorts, purple short gloves and a pair of thigh-high high heeled boots, both eyeing the room suspiciously until Death's Head cleared his throat rather loudly. The two girls spun around, the green one letting out a loud scream at the sight of the imposing cyborg.

"EEEEEEEK!"

"Oh my…that was rather loud, yes?" Death's Head winced, one eye narrowed and miming to rub one non-existent ear, before snickering a bit. "So I take it you must be a screamer? My, you must have one very tolerant lover."

"H-HEY!" the green girl shot out, no longer clinging to the orange-skinned girl, shaking her fist a bit, while the other girl snickered softly, unable to resist the crude joke. "Mar'i, that's not funny!"

"Yes it is, Terri. Especially since you don't have a boyfriend, though you certainly do bother Peter a lot."

"Well, what do you expect? He has no powers, so he's a prime target for super villains."

Death's Head chuckled a bit, and crossed his rather large arms over his chest. "I'm sure that's it."

"Who are you anyways, skull-face?" Terri shot at the cyborg, still nervous, while he moved closer, looking about some more and tsking.

"Terrible housekeeping in this place, yes? Should shoot the maid."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I'm your new teammate. You may call me Death's Head. Only my friends call me DH." He remarked, sitting himself down on the semi-circular couch, surprised that it didn't collapse under his weight, then remembered that the team had their own cyborg back in the day, aptly named Cyborg. He and Death's Head never quite got along. Perhaps it was Death's Head's shoot first policy…no matter. He waved a hand in the air, the two girls puzzled by his actions. "I'm here to make sure you lot don't get yourselves killed, because if any of you die, they shut me down. They really don't like me, you see?"

"I see…" Mar'i sat down next to him, hands on her knees.

"That outfit is rather provocative, don't you think?" She shrugged, smiling a bit.

"My mom dressed the same…she's the one who gave me this outfit."

"Oh my. Certainly didn't expect that response." The former mercenary chuckled softly, closing both eyes and tilting his head back to peer at the roof when he did open his eyes. "Anyway, where are the others? Will they be here today?"

"They should be…though tryouts are today too. They said there'd be someone for everyone to fight…guess that means you…"

"Oh my…well, I suppose I should hold back then…wouldn't want to hurt the children..." Mar'i giggled a bit.

"Don't hold back too much…I've heard about you. You're supposed to be the black sheep of the hero community…you wouldn't want to look like you've gone soft, would you?"

"Oh my, no. That would be disastrous."

There was some shared laughter, before the door opened, and the rest of the prospective team came in…

* * *

End Notes: Okay, this is the end of the Prologue for this story, the first in the Tomorrow Titans series, as I'm currently calling the project. As for those of you who are wondering why there are more Death's Head bits than Titans bits, it's because Death's Head (both I and II) were Marvel UK characters, and not as widely known to today's television and comic audiences, aside from a few appearances in Marvel US books. So I figured since he'll be making an extended appearance in these stories, I might as well give you all the relevant background information on the characters, so that you're not all left in the dark. If there are any questions at all, review or email me, and I'll explain whatever you need to know. Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoyed it. 

And also, I wanted to mention that I adapted the first two issues of the Death's Head II first volume (the mini-series), or at least parts of them to explain the relevant parts of his origin. I thought I should mention that much.


	2. Charnel House: Tensions

Tomorrow Titans – The Next Generation

Saga Arc #1: Charnel House

Chapter #1: "Tensions"

Disclaimer: I really hate doing these things…all the characters within these pages are the property of Marvel Comics, Marvel Comics UK, DC Comics, Warner Brothers, Cartoon Network, and various other sources. The characters of Jonni Blaze, Thunderstrike/Ranko, Mary, and other next generation heroes are created by me, with the exception largely of Gehenna. Suffice it to say, this version of the character is mine, inspired by the Marvel Comics character May Parker/Spider-Girl, which shall become apparent later. Death's Head II is NOT an original character, but a Marvel UK creation dated back to around 1988 and up to 94, barring guest star appearances in other comics.

Author's Notes: Here's the chapter where I introduce the rest of the prospective team, and the dynamic is set which will determine how the rest of the story unfolds. Mad props to all my friends out there who made this fanfic possible.

And I want to add that I'm borrowing the format Black Panther's Knight uses for a while, to experiment to see how this turns out. Let me know what you think.

* * *

The first group of newcomers were a small number of young women. The first was a medium height redhead with Asian features and dark eyes, wearing a black leather vest over a dark blue sleeveless top with six white circles on the torso and exposed sides –except around the chest area – dark blue pants, and dark black heeled boots and a golden belt with a T on it, carrying a duffle bag and a hammer-like mace that dangled from her left wrist, a slightly amused expression on her face, her hair in a pigtail This was Thundrstrike. The second was a girl with short white hair, wearing a red leather trenchcoat with brown leather gun holsters attached to the sides, guns included, wearing a black sleeveless, midriff baring top, grayish green pants, and tight laced heavy boots, with a broadsword over her back, and a bored look on her face. This was Mary. The third was another girl, this one with pale grey skin, long, long dark purple-blue hair, wearing a blue dress with slits along the sides, thigh-high high heeled boots, and long gloves with two fingers missing from each hand, and a dark blue cloak/cape with a hood that covered the upper part of her face, and a bit of a smirk on her face as a heavy bag that was floating beside her was lowered to the floor. This was the mysterious girl commonly called Gehenna, though she had a secret name…

Then a young man walked in, with long blonde hair, a fair amount of muscle build, wearing chain-link armor with a deep red colored cape along with an elaborate Norse headdress. The redhead regarded him, then snarled with anger at the mere sight of him.

"Valkyrion! What are you doing here, you scum!" She raised her mace-hammer, and brought it down, the man responded by doing the same with his, the two weapons striking each other and causing a peal of thunder to boom through the room, starting to make the other organics in the room worry…nothing worried Death's Head normally. So instead he got up from where he was seated, and calmly walked over to the two empowered teenagers, and grabbed them by their necks and pulled them apart, leaving them to kick and yell at him, glaring at him "Hey, let me down!"

"You heard her!"

"Not until you children settle down, yes? Prefer a spanking?" The tone he used implied that he was being quite serious, so both teens settled down, and he dropped them. Then he tilted his head, and gave both of them a look over. "Ah, I see…you two are Thunderstrike and Valkyrion, both Norse-empowered heroes who happen to hate each other. Why, I do not know." At that point the redhead spoke up.

"That's because he and his stuffy God friends called my mom a freak!" Now it was Gehenna's turn to speak, grinning a bit.

"Don't you have two moms?" Mar'i gave her a glance, confused.

"What's wrong with that? I mean, sexual equality has been around for decades now…"

"BOTH of her mothers are her biological mothers." At that the redhead went red in the face, and glared at the pale, gothic looking girl, who flinched a bit at the hatred from her eyes. "Sorr-y," she muttered under her breath, while the others looked confused for several moments.

"JUST LEAVE IT AT THAT!" Thunderstrike screamed, not wanting anyone to figure out what the implication of Gehenna's words were, while Death's Head just sighed, and hit both teens in the back of the head with his fists, with a loud 'clonk' sound. "OW!"

"What was that for?!"

"You two are at it again. Keep it up and you'll wish I'd have just given you a good spanking." They settled down again, amidst some giggling. Death's Head then sighed, and crossed his arms over his large chest. "Alright, everyone pick a room, yes? Then move in, and report to the practice room for sparring practice. I'm supposed to test your cohesiveness as a team."

"Oh, yay for us…" Mary grumbled, tugging on her fingerless gloves and stretching herself out a little, tugging down on her shirt a little. "Still, it could be fun. I haven't had a decent work out since I left home…" Everyone just gave her a look, then looked to their new instructor, and a collective moment of disbelief was shared, Gehenna succinctly summing things up.

"Well, crap."

* * *

About half an hour later, a holographic environment was created, of a wrecked cityscape – a rather common environment for these things, and something Death's Head had grown used to, but as it was a tradition to do at least one of these things, he decided to do it first and get it over with already. He was standing atop a leveled building, which was more a pile of rubble than anything, while Thunderstrike, Mary, Valkyrion, Gehenna, Beast Girl/Terri and Nightstar/Mar'i were assembled in a semicircle below the rubble pile. Death's Head was speaking in his usual clipped, almost-professional tones, as he was prone to do when dealing with people he considered his intellectual inferiors – he had quite the high opinion of himself, what with the 105 personalities and memories he had locked away in his metallic skull.

"Now, children, the point of this will be a kind of 'final exam', to see if you can work together as a team. If you can beat me, you'll pass, and this team will be finalized. If you can't, then there's no team and you'll all go home to your parents or whoever your caregivers are. Fun, yes?" He gave the impression of smugness, and transformed his arm into its blaster cannon mode, which soon began humming and glowing a yellow color. "Starting…now." At that point he fired off the cannon, aiming for the center of the group, causing them to disperse as the concussive force tore into the ground and caused a crater, Death's Head leaping down and firing as he ran, aiming for Thunderstrike and keeping her off-balance as he rushed forward. Then he slammed his non-transforming fist into her, grabbed her by the face, and flung her towards Nightstar, who fell back with the redhead in a heap, stunned from the force of the impact. "Not trying hard enough, children. Not nearly hard enough."

"Take this, monster!" Valkyrion crowed as he threw his warhammer, which smashed into Death's Head's back, tearing into it and exposing the vulnerable circuits and wires and other bit of his insides. "Yes! I've done it!" However, as soon as the hammer hit the ground, the damage to the cyborg began to repair itself, the material of his back almost melting into a liquid metal state as it completely sealed off, all the circuit restored. "What the…?"

"If you had done your research, boy, you'd know I could do that without even thinking about it. Really, your enemies won't be this forgiving--"

ZZZARK!

A pair of violet beams collided with Death's Head's neck, and snapped the peacekeeper's head forwards, at an angle that could potentially cause serious harm to a living being, but that was quickly repaired and the cyborg aimed his cannon-arm at Nightstar, and fired, the beam hitting the girl dead center in the chest and knocking her for a loop as she smashed into a damaged car. "That's better…much better." He heard the crunch of broken masonry behind him, his cannon morphing into a segmented, pronged blade, and lashed out with it behind himself. "Yaaah!"

CLANG!

The blade hit Mary's broadsword, the girl attempting to slice open Death's Head, as her style of fighting was quite aggressive and usually aimed towards killing demons and subduing humans…in this case, Death's Head was neither, so she was leaning more towards beheading him and sealing the deal. She lunged forward with the blade, air rushing over it and slammed the tip into the cyborg's chest, tearing into it and causing his body to short out for a moment, before he gripped the blade with his hand, and pulled it out with a groan, glaring at the girl before she began to stab forward with the blade, repeatedly striking him in the chest, hitting him almost as fast as he 'healed', but definitely knocked him back. Then came a loud roar, and the former mercenary turned around, to see a large green lion rush him, and struck him in the 'face' with one clawed paw, sending him spinning through the air like a whirlwind, though he landed on the ground in a crouch, still keeping his transforming arm into its blade form, growling softly, a sound akin to feedback almost. The lion and Mary shared a look, that basically said 'we're screwed,' and separated as he lunged forwards, raising his blade up over his head, then brought it down, tearing into the ground as he missed, though intentionally of course, and paused as he realized that one member of the team hadn't attacked yet.

At that moment, he felt his body being lifted into the air telekinetically, a black aura surrounding him and forcing his arms to his sides. Grunting and even swearing a bit, he found himself flying through the air as Gehenna floated there, a little smirk on her face, before sending him flying through a truck cab and then picked up the remains of the truck and smashed it down onto him, causing a massive explosion that caused everyone on the ground to fall down, and for those that had just arose, fall down again. The gothic mage smirked a bit, and brushed her hands together. "And that is how you take care of that."

However, while she was celebrating her victory, it was actually a bit premature, as, arising from the burning crater, was a singed and smoking Death's Head, who didn't look one bit happy as his chest plates had been burnt black, and several wires had been torn apart along his neck, though surprisingly his face was largely undamaged, save for the pre-existing damage caused during his fight with Subject 104, Lehdrox. Grunting, he reformed his cannon/blaster, and fired off a highly concussive blast, knocking the teens off their feet and sending them falling down in one big pile.

"Cocky, yes? That'll cost you in a fight." He walked up to the fallen would-be heroes, his armor already reforming and the wires reattaching as all his systems resumed normal functions, previous performance having been impaired by the damages. "Now for your final grade in this little 'test'…" He left that big hanging ominously in the air, and, after they all separated, they all looked down, save for Valkyrion and Thunderstrike, who were still glaring at each other, as though blaming the other for their failure to perform.

"You all pass. Momentous occasion, yes?" Death's Head clapped his hands a bit, congratulating them, and gave the impression of a smirk. "You did better than most of my opponents, even though I was taking it easy on you all…after all, my fate is yours – if any of you get injured on my watch, your parents are going to shut me down for good." The teens all gave the cyborg stunned expressions, and he chuckled. "Yes, I'm actually doing all this against my true wishes. Forced into it, really, yes? I'm going to serve as your trainer, your support, and – until you decide otherwise – your team leader. When we find a suitable candidate to take that role, I will gladly give it up. This is all rather embarrassing for me."

He walked forward then, and gave them all pats on the back. "Now then, unpack your rooms and you can socialize. Perhaps order pizza, yes? Enjoy yourselves while I reconnect all the alarms to this place…it hasn't seen action in decades…" There was a general air of relief now that they knew Death's Head wasn't mad at them, and were more than willing to do what he said. Mary turned to Nightstar and the others, and grinned.

"That was the best fight I've ever been in. That guy's a total blast."

They all resisted the urge to slap their foreheads and/or faces with their palms as they all collectively sighed.

* * *

Thunderstrike was busy unpacking her bag, though she had more to bring with her; she just wanted to carry the one at the moment, and have the rest of her stuff brought over. Her reason for wanting to join this team was pretty simple – she wanted to help people, like her mothers, even if her existence was some random quirk of fate. But to have to deal with Valkyrion again…that uptight, arrogant S.O.B made her so angry, so furious…the Asgardian Gods chose a boy they thought was worthy of their power, because they felt that Thor had fallen too far in choosing to marry a mortal, no matter how powerful she was. So Ranko had been denied her birthright even before she was born, and replaced with someone even less worthy – Valkyrion was a tool of the Gods, completely willing to carry out their agenda, while Ranko (as Thunderstrike) only wanted to protect the earth as her mother Akane had done before her. And now she was torn…now she had to work with the one person she hated most in the world, and deal with all the trouble he'd caused her family.

She was so caught up in her musings that she didn't hear a knock on the door, before it slid open and Gehenna stepped in, a somber look on her face. "Thunderstrike…Ranko…are you alright?"

"I'm pretty sure you know I'm not doing alright, considering you can read people's emotions…" The purple haired goth moved in closer, and sat down on the redhead's bed, bouncing in place a bit as she contemplated what to say next.

"Don't take it too hard…He's only that way because he doesn't know any better…I mean, from what I hear, the Asgardians are a mean bunch, but they're all really screwed up, too. So of course their champion would be a little screwed up. But hey, it could be worse."

"And how exactly could it be worse?"

"Well, he could be an Aryan."

When Ranko heard that, she burst out laughing loudly, putting a hand over her mouth, trying to get herself under control, her red hair bouncing a bit as she trembled mirthfully. "Oh…Oh…oh man, you always know exactly what to say, don't you?"

"It's a gift," Gehenna shrugged, smiling a bit and tilting her head to the side, still bouncing up and down on the bed, an action the redhead took note of.

"Enjoying yourself much?"

"Oh, immensely," the goth snickered a bit, closing one eye and pointing out with one hand, two fingers pointing forward, the thumb pointing up and the others folded back, miming a gun for a moment. This girl was certainly a far cry from her mother, even if she was mostly just as reserved, even if it was just on the outside. "Any time you need to talk, you know where to find me, okay?" The offer was sincere, and the pale girl lowered her hood, and pulled her long hair out from beneath her cape, stroking it a little. Ranko whistled.

"Wow, that's some hair ya got there…"

"Thanks…took me ages to grow it out this long…"

* * *

Mary hadn't brought anything with her yet, having left all her stuff back in the small apartment she'd been staying in for the past few months after moving to Jump City, looking for strong people to fight, other than her father. Frankly, it had been a rather dull journey, since no one had proven strong enough to even last five minutes against her, until now. Maybe there was something to this superhero gig after all…even if it meant she had to dress somewhat more conservatively now than she used to. Laughing a bit, she lay back on her bed, staring up at the roof, her sword leaning up against the bed's nightstand, her guns unholstered and resting on the surface of the nightstand the safeties on. She had an amused look on her face, and chuckled softly as she thought about what awaited her in her new life.

"You know, this could be a lot of fun…" she thought to herself, a mischievous grin on her face as she closed her eyes, and began humming a tune her father had taught her long ago when she was just a baby.

* * *

Terri was checking out her bedroom again, sitting back on the floor as she looked puzzled at the layout, and wondered if this had been her father's room, as it sported the bunk beds, but certainly it wasn't the utter mess it had been in his time. Being here made her feel closer to her family, and just being on the team gave her a sense of accomplishment, even if it wasn't exactly what she had expected. She certainly hadn't expected to see the likes of Death's Head present. She wasn't sure him serving as the leader was such a good idea, but she certainly couldn't take over herself – she wasn't exactly leader material.

Then, as she lay back, a thought occurred to her – she could always ask Mar'i to petition for the role of team leader, as she had been raised by her father, the original Robin, and in many ways was just like her father, even though her mother, Starfire, had a big influence on her as well. Certainly she'd be more sensitive to the team's needs than Death's Head, who only seemed to be doing this 'favor' to them for his own gains, and didn't really care about them. At least not yet. Terri had a way of endearing herself to even the coldest of people, so she then figured that eventually the cyborg would warm up to her, and through her, the others. And just thinking about that gave her reason enough to stay where she was, sitting up on the floor of her room with a bit of a goofy grin on her face, pointed canines glinting a bit in the overhead light.

* * *

Mar'i had thoughts of her own, mostly about her family – her father, her mother, and her twin brother, Joh'n. He seemed to take more after their mother, quitting the superhero game to become a male model. The profession suited him, as it did their mother, but frankly, Mar'i wished this could be like old times, with them working together as a single unit, but that would take quite a bit of convincing to do. Joh'n was still in Bludhaven, and here she was in Jump City, so it wasn't like she could simply just run over to his room like she used to. So, sighing, she just sat on the edge of her bed, which had once been her mother's, though the sheets had been freshly laundered and the bed cleaned thoroughly, and propped her elbow on her leg, and her chin on her fist, taking a pose similar to the Thinker statue/sculpture, which she was prone to do lately, and just thought.

* * *

Valkyrion's life hadn't been an easy one – he'd been abandoned by his parents long ago, and bounced from foster home to foster home, until he'd finally he'd been adopted by a loving couple, and raised as their son. He'd taken to his new environment like a duck to water, and always felt that life couldn't get much better than this. His real name had been Adam, no last name for the longest time, really, and ever since he could dream, he always thought he'd been destined for greater things.

And one day his destiny came to him.

One fateful day he found a strange walking stick in a cave, and felt compelled to slam the tip against the ground, and transformed into Valkyrion for the first time. Then he received a message from an emissary of the Norse Gods. He was told that he would become their champion, the rightful protector of Asgard and Earth, as his predecessor Thor had fallen from grace, thanks to her 'brother' Loki's schemes and manipulations, which ultimately had Thor given a human form, and later bonded to that human form as one entity, and losing her godly status to become a demi-god. And if that wasn't enough, she married another woman, Ranko's other mother Ranma Saotome, in defiance of Odin's wishes, which caused the former goddess to be cast out and left alone, though Lady Sif and Amora the Enchantress still pined for Thor, no matter what her godly status or physical appearance was.

As a result of his elevation to godhood – of sorts – Thor's daughter Ranko despised Valkyrion deeply, and he returned that hatred in kind after a misunderstanding when a number of innocent civilians had been injured thanks to the two being unable to work together without trying to upstate the other. Still, Adam had his doubts as to how he reacted to those situations, and occasionally pondered that maybe it WAS his fault that those people had been hurt, that he hadn't taken the proper precautions, and maybe he felt the need to impress upon Ranko that she wasn't needed…and yet she was, because she was still acting as a superhero, as really, it was all she had left in her life now. And he couldn't help but feel guilty over that too.

Life sure was complex…

* * *

Death's Head was seated before the Titans' Tower's mainframe, having plugged into it shortly after sitting, and began sifting through the old files and backing them up, as well as updating the Most Wanted lists and security files and the like, as well as in general cleaning up the hard-drives of every computer in the building, humming softly as he worked, a needless habit he'd developed some time ago on a mission that wasn't really worth remembering otherwise; he had a sinking feeling these kids would grown on him, and change him somehow. When his mind had been in his old body, Death's Head I, he didn't need to worry about getting to close to people, as the only person he dealt with daily was Spratt, his old assistant-of-sorts, though that role was now taken by Tuck, who had gotten her own apartment in various cities, each one containing the exact same books, DVDs and other luxuries, things she couldn't have on her homeworld of Lionheart, where machines and synthetic humans were hunted down near-religiously, their very existence seen as an offense to the more 'sensible' normal humans. That world sickened him, but he did meet Tuck, so going there hadn't been all bad.

Then there was Charnel – a monster made from the vengeful Baron Strucker the Fifth and his old body, which had been rebuilt by Strucker and used in a mix of necromancy and cybernetics fusion, in a form of technomancy, to create Charnel, a monster that would've taken over the world and wiped out billions if it hadn't been for time-displaced alternate Avengers, Doctor Necker, Tuck, and Death's Head himself. Indeed, it had been Death's Head and the last surviving Avenger, the Scarlet Witch, who had dealt the death blow, separating Charnel's halves in two different time frames. Of course he came back, but that wasn't as important…

Then came the X-Men, Wraithchild, and so on and so forth, until it all ran together in his head and no longer mattered. Then he met the Doctor again, an 'acquaintance' of his past self that had been nothing but trouble each and every time they met, even with other nuisances driving them together. Then finally they met in their latest incarnations/bodies/forms, and worked together, along with a horde of superheroes and supervillains, and saved the entirety of reality from destruction and unraveling due to the machinations of a large group of single-minded individuals that wanted, as always, universal domination.

And now here he was, baby-sitting and updating decade-old software in state of the art computers, manually. How the mighty have fallen, indeed. He sighed, and finished his work, then removed the data plugs that he had attached to the base of his neck, and placed them aside, then stood, and headed for his own bedroom. There he had to begin his upgrading to make sure the old systems would work fine with his own highly advanced internal mechanics.

So the moment he stepped inside, he began plugging into the data ports again, and sifting through all the software, and checking out the hardware as he worked, and finally finished everything, and turned off his connections, and set himself down on the maintenance bed, plugged himself in, and 'took a nap' – basically, he went into standby mode. He didn't have to, but frankly, he needed a break from the joke his life had become since his teaming up with superheroes.

'Be careful what you wish for…' was his last thoughts before he shut down temporarily.

* * *

End Notes: Well, here we go, second chapter, and more character and character development. If some of them seem familiar, they should – I'm borrowing a few concepts from Black Pather's Knight with his permission. Also, I have to give him credit for coming up with the Valkyrion idea for me as a way to help balance out the team. Though the team isn't all assembled yet…

You'll find that bit out soon enough.


	3. Charnel House: Surprising Encounters

Tomorrow Titans – The Next Generation

Saga Arc #1: Charnel House

Chapter #2: "Surprising Encounters"

Disclaimer: Well, I'm not quite sure what to say. It's no secret I'm not fond of disclaimers, as I believe that it's obvious that I do this not for money or any kind of gain at all, and that barring some exceptions, such as Nightstar and other DC/Marvel original characters, the rest are either mine or belong to my friends, as stated before. If there's anything I've missed here, and I'll put it up in the next disclaimer.

Author's Notes: Now, here is where I begin to write more according to my personal beliefs, so if I offend you, I'm honestly and truly sorry for that, but this is how I want to write this, in a realistic and believable manner.

* * *

The day started like any other. Beast Girl awoke from her bed, a bit disoriented at first, before realizing she had moved into the Tower, wearing a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, yawning, and ran a hand through her long hair, before getting out of bed and putting on a pair of slippers, and a robe, and padded out into the hallway, slouching as she walked. As she neared the All-Purpose room, she could smell a pleasant, calming odor, a smile spreading across her face. It was breakfast.

When she entered, sitting at the table were Gehenna - with tousled hair and slouching back, wearing a rather revealing short black nightgown, which was a contrast to her more conservative costume, and an open black silk robe – Mar'i – wearing a large t-shirt and shorts, and looking rather chipper for such an early hour – and Mary, who was wearing a loose tank top and pajama bottoms, grumbling under her breath.

"God, what is that smell? It smells like…plants." The quarter-demon complained, covering the lower half of her face with a hand

Beast Girl looked over to the kitchenette, and was surprised to see Death's Head at a pot of tea, pouring some into a cup, and walking over to the table, sitting down on a specially reinforced chair. A closer examination revealed it to be…yes, green tea. The cyborg sipped on the cup, closing his mismatched eyes and letting out a contented sigh as he paused to enjoy the flavor…something he couldn't do in his old body. "Uhm…DH…is that…tea?" The green girl asked redundantly, a bit surprised that the lethal and efficient cyborg could actually enjoy tea in the sophisticated manner he was demonstrating now. He gave her a look, like she was crazy, and blinked.

"Uh, yeah, it is…why are you staring at me? I enjoy flavored beverages, big deal." It was also then that she noticed he had long, almost flowing dark red hair. She had originally mistaken the hair for loose wires, but this close she could make out the dense, individual strands, and marveled at how smooth they were, and, hesitantly, reached out with a hand to touch it, running her fingers through the strands, and giggling. The cyborg gave her another look, surprised, and blinked rapidly. "…Invading my personal space here, kid." Taken aback, Terri retracted her hand quickly, paling a bit.

"S-sorry! It's just so soft…I didn't know you had hair…"

"It's fine." Death's Head waved a hand, and sipped more of his tea, and looked over to Mary. "The bacon's burning."

"Oh shit!" The silver haired girl bolted out of her chair, and ran over to the stove/oven, and quickly turned it off, removing the bacon from the plate with her bare fingers, cursing a bit as she singed her fingertips, though they would heal quickly soon enough. "Damn it! You did that on purpose, you skull-faced ass!" The peacekeeper laughed a bit, and set his teacup down.

"Who, me? Of course not. I wouldn't want to starve you all, today especially…we're going to have visitors. Important ones." He snickered anyways, as Mary began distributing the bacon on five plates, Beast Girl looking visibly ill when a plate was set down before her. "Don't be an idiot, Mary…"

"What, what now, oh great leader?"

"Beast Girl is a VEGETARIAN. She doesn't eat meat…or cheese. I don't know about milk…she certainly doesn't eat meat." Death's Head chuckled as he removed the bacon from the plate, and began to idly chew on a piece. "Oh my, this is rather charred. No wonder you moved in here…"

"HEY!"

The other girls snickered and laughed, while the white haired girl went red in the face, and sat down, Terri going over to the fridge and poking about, and noticing some tofu set down on a platter with a bottle of soy sauce, and blinked. "Hey…this isn't mine…" She took it out anyway, curious. Mar'i giggled, and looked over to her childhood friend.

"I put it there for you, actually…I figured one of us should be ready for the next day…" The half-alien smiled sweetly, blinking her green eyes at the green girl, who blushed a bit. The cyborg chuckled yet again, sipping his tea again, and leaning back in his chair.

"That's very precious."

Gehenna looked over at their de-facto team leader, and tilted her head a little. "Hey, get back to the bit about the visitors…"

"Oh, sorry. Some members of the Justice League and New Titans will be stopping by to see if we've gotten everything 'ironed out', as it were. A bit of hassle, yes?" the blue armored being sighed a little, and ran a finger along one of his head horns, stroking it just a bit, thoughtfully. "Hopefully it won't be anything too serious, but Superman's going to be here, and I'm not looking forward to that. A hassle." There was a collective groan, and everyone shared in a sigh. "Yes, they don't trust us it seems…or at least me. I spent all night setting this shack up, and it's all completely state-of-the-art…probably even better than what the other teams have now."

There was a moment of silence, which was promptly filled with chewing, mostly from Gehenna and Mary, while Death's Head had finished his some time ago, and had his head tilted to the side, brushing his hair away from his shoulders momentarily. Finally Gehenna sighed, and gave him a look. "So basically you want us to keep low, I'm guessing."

"Well, I wouldn't put it exactly like that. More like I want you all on your best behavior, and try to keep the curses to a minimum. You know those Superman Family members hate that stuff. I have the feeling ol' Kon-boy is trying to stick us with something…" DH paused as he spoke, and finished his tea, setting the cup down and lacing his fingers together, looking as thoughtful as he could, considering the nature of his face. Then he pulled his fingers apart and clapped his hands together, loudly, startling everyone. "Let's take care of the last of the dust, yes? Want to have this place looking nice and tidy." With that he stood up, and headed over to a supply closet near the kitchenette, and took out a mop and bucket. "Who wants the mop, and who wants the broom?"

* * *

Hours later, after the rest of the team had been roused from their slumber, with some fighting in the process, the Tower was completely cleaned and smelling lemony fresh. By the Tower, that meant the above ground levels. They were going to take care of the lower levels after the 'surprise' visit. Gehenna had gone off on her own, saying cryptically that she was going to be in her room studying some of her mother's old books, and Valkyrion was watching the television with Beast Girl, who kept trying to take the remote from the boy, who simply placed a fingertip against her forehead and kept her at bay easily with his enhanced strength. Nightstar had decided to fix up her room a little more to her liking, and Ranko, whose mood had not improved over night, had stormed out to the training room and selected a program to work out her aggressions on, ranting and fuming all the while, and screaming Japanese, English, AND Norse obscenities while she slammed her mace into the training robots.

Death's Head was busy watching Beast Girl playing a video game with Valkryion, musing a bit on the state of his life that he was reduced to this, but then realized this was something he'd already been doing since he first came here, and decided to quit. And so, he walked over to the couch/sofa and sat next to her, stretching out a bit and leaning back as he sat and pushed Valkyrion to the side, sitting in between him and Beast Girl and looking at the TV screen with some interest, blinking a few times and sighing, before finally speaking. "What exactly are you two doing?"

"Playing Mega Monkeys X, why?" Terri didn't look to him, just remained engrossed in her game, and fidgeting around a bit, standing up after a few moments and a victory, and did a little dance, prompting Death's Head to laugh softly. "What's so funny?"

"That's a ridiculous dance, girl."

"Nyah! You're just jealous you can't dance like me!" She pulled down one eyelid and stuck out her tongue at the Cyborg, who promptly reached out, and caught her by the tongue, making her squeak in surprise. "Whaaa…? 'eggo mah tung…"

"And why should I do that?" He let go anyways, and wiped his fingers on the surface of the couch. "I hope my hand doesn't smell of tofu now…" Terri kept her tongue out of her mouth, fuming a bit.

"Dat wath tho mean…"

"And undeniably funny."

"Grrr…."

"Oh, lighten up…from what I've heard your father was on the receiving end of worse in his day." The green girl sat down, putting her left hand on her chin and thinking thoughtfully, in vain, on how to pay the cyborg back, and couldn't come up with a single idea. Then one came to her…a trick her father once tried to do on Cyborg. She grinned, and sat upright, then frowned and sagged – she had just remembered that that particular prank instead hit Starfire and covered her in motor oil, and earned him the title of 'Klorbag Varblernelk.' She certainly didn't want to slime Mar'i in a similar fashion…plus Death's Head was called Death's Head for a reason. She really didn't want to try her luck with him, at least not until he'd gotten endeared to her…and she could endear anyone to her with enough time. DH regarded all of her actions with a curious eye, and blinked a few times, before shrugging a bit and running a metal hand through his long synthetic hair. "There you go. Nice and calm. If you behave, I'll get you a treat, yes?"

Those words caused the girl's ears to perk up noticeably, and she blinked curiously to the cyborg. "A…treat?"

"Yes, some candy or something…whatever children like." He waved a hand dismissively, and shrugged again. "Not that I know anything about what children like…" A mischievous grin formed on the elfin shapeshifter's face, and she clasped her hands together, and began to rub them together.

"Oooh, this is gonna be good…"

Death's Head just sighed, and held his head in his hands. "Oh boy…I've stepped into it now, huh?"

"Oh yes."

Before anything else could be said, the sound of the main door sliding open could be heard, and approaching footsteps as well. The three team members turned around, and standing there was Superman, in his red, dark blue, and black costume, a serious look on his face. The cyborg groaned loudly, and slapped his forehead. "Oh yes, you lot would pick now to arrive." Following Superman were a number of other heroes: One of the new members of the league, the Bulleteer – a 27 year old woman who's body was covered with a silver 'smartskin', and wearing a red top that showed some midriff, didn't cover her shoulders, long length red gloves, and red high heeled knee-high boots, and white pants – Green Lantern, one of the many members of the GL Corp – this latest GL was Jade Rayner, daughter of Kyle Rayner and Jennie-Lynn Hayden/Jade, and had deep emerald-colored skin, black hair with green streaks in it, green eyes, and wearing a black and white bodysuit that had no sleeves, and a Green Lantern insignia on the chest, as well as the power ring she had been given – Wonder Woman – Cassanda Sandsmark, the new inheritor of the title of Wonder Woman and wearing a skirted, more armored version of the familiar costume with a face-framing tiara on– the former Teen Titan Cyborg, now covered with a liquid gold outer shell, and an unidentified redhead with long hair, and wearing a jean jacket over a legless leotard, a red short skirt, black thigh high stockings, and red sneakers. Beast Girl looked quizzically at the newcomers, while Valkyrion stood in awe, while Death's Head was silently fuming over this latest distraction. "Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Would you like to kick me while I'm down, Kon-boy?"

"Don't call me that, Death's Head. Or would you prefer Minion?" The half-kryptonian sneered slightly at the cyborg, who rankled at the name.

"Minion is who this body was before I was downloaded. I'm Death's Head. I'm never anything BUT Death's Head. Call me that again, and I will hurt you. I will break your bones and I will laugh."

"Promises, Promises."

Snarling, the cyborg stood, only to have Cyborg – Victor Stone – get between him and Superman, the former teen hero giving them both a harsh look. "Alright you two, knock it off. There are kids present." Then Vic looked specifically at Superman. "You know Kal wouldn't have goaded Death's Head like that. When you wear that shield, you're above his petty insults." A hand was placed on Superman's, and he looked back to see Wonder Woman, smiling a bit.

"He's right, Kon. Besides, I think it's kind of a cute nickname. Would've been more appropriate when we were kids, though." DH chuckled softly, and stood, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Now, let's just get this little soiree over with, please. I have to take Beast Girl out on what I'm assuming to be a shopping spree because I grabbed her tongue." That elicited some surprised looks on the elder heroes' faces.

"You grabbed…" Superman started, and Wonder Woman finished.

"…her tongue?"

"Yes, it was very silly of me, and I don't know what came over me. Maybe I'm getting soft in my 'old age'." The former mercenary grunted, and narrowed his eyes a little at the other 'elder' heroes. "Now, what would you like to talk about first? Perhaps that redhead you have with you. Unless the Justice League is recruiting young, I'm guessing you want her to join with us, yes?" Superman sighed, and reluctantly nodded.

"Yeah…Kal wants her in the Titans, and since yours is the only team active at the time, aside from the New Titans – but they're too busy to take her on – you're in charge of her well-being. But Kal says he trusts you…that all your help in the past have proven that in some respects, you're a hero." At those words, Death's Head winced a bit, as the h-word was something he didn't consider himself, even after all this time – he was, and always will be, a Freelance Peacekeeping Agent at heart. "And this is a big thing."

"Why exactly?"

"She's Kal and Diana's daughter." Valkyrion, Beast Girl, and Death's Head did a bit of a double-take, as this was the first any of them had heard of such a child. The redhead laughed a bit, and rubbed the back of her head with one hand, her jacket sleeve sliding down to expose a black metal bracelet on her wrist, a near-match to Wonder Woman's.

"Uh, hi everybody. I'm A-ko. A-ko Magami." She offered her hand to Death's Head, those clear blue eyes unblinking, an easy smile on her face. The cyborg could do nothing else but reach out and take that hand, giving a firm shake, the redhead grinning as she applied more pressure, to which DH did the same thing, until they were both trying to crush the other's hand, to little effect, as A-ko was nearly as invulnerable as her 'uncle' Kon, and Death's Head's exterior was very resistant to damage, and any damage he would take would be repaired in seconds, due to the large amount of nanotech used in his development. Finally the two let go, a bit of respect shared between them. "Nice grip you got there."

"Same to you." During this exchange, Terri had gotten up, and began eyeing the redhead suspiciously before speaking up.

"Hey, if you're Superman's daughter, where's your S?" She asked, narrowing her eyes a bit and raising one eyebrow in an exaggerated manner. A-ko laughed a bit, and opened her jacket, revealing the red and black logo on her chest. "Oh…well then, nevermind."

"Anything else, Kon—I'm sorry, Superman?" Death's Head turned to Superman again, and resumed crossing his arms over his large blue chest, narrowing his eyes once again, as these two still shared a bit of an animosity that wasn't quite explained to the general public and younger generation just yet, but this was a very personal disagreement. The half-Kryptonian nodded, and crossed his own arms over his chest.

"We want to look over the Tower, and make sure you've kept up your end of the deal and upgraded everything to the latest software, and made any hardware adjustments as necessary, and check your files, that sort of thing." Death's Head just bowed a little bit before speaking, making a flourish with his arms as he did.

"Very well, you may do as you wish. The only part of the building we haven't worked on yet is the subbasements, as we don't have any use for those yet…unless you've seen it in your heart to give us a big budget or a steady paycheque. Those would come in real handy around here…" Superman snorted a bit at that, and everyone else chuckled softly.

"Sorry, no. But we'll have Green Lantern look everything over, and if she clears it anyways, we'll see about helping out…" Superman motioned with his hand, and the Leaguers assembled around him. "Okay people, let's split up. Bulleteer, you take the roof; Green Lantern, you and I will check the subbasements; Wonder Woman, you check the training areas to see if they're set up properly for the kids." Everyone nodded in agreement, and the group broke up, leaving Death's Head, Beast Girl, Valkryion, and A-ko, who had a slightly confused look on her face. Death's Head just sighed, and waved his left hand dismissively.

"My, they get to work fast, don't they?"

* * *

Bulleteer made her way up to the roof, sighing a bit and wondering for what seemed like the hundredth time what she was doing here with these people. Her name was Alix Harrower, and she was a widow – her husband had created the smartskin that covered most, if not all, of her natural skin, though her deep crimson hair had been left alone, as had her eyes, and her husband had died in testing the skin on himself. The only reason Alix was still alive was that she had been wearing her wedding band, and had enough exposed skin for the people in the ER to save her, while her husband suffocated. The only reason she became a superhero was to honor his memory, though more and more it was becoming a problem.

She looked around curiously, and noticed something rather odd. There was a girl, on the roof, sunbathing. "Uh, excuse me…who are you?" The girl got up, yawning, and Alix then noticed the girl was topless, and wearing a small bikini bottoms, and had pale grey skin and long purple hair, and dark purple eyes. "Oh my." The girl…no, the young woman…stood and put on a robe she had with her, after putting her top back on, and smiled to Alix in an oddly seductive manner. When the pale girl neared her, she leaned in, and placed a light kiss on the redhead's lips, and gave her backside a firm squeeze.

"My, you're a sweet one, aren't you?" Gehenna purred as she ran a hand through her long hair. "The helmet's a bit much, though." With that, she left the confused, and flustered, Alix on her own, and headed back down the stairs with the intent of heading to her bedroom – which had been her mother's – and getting dressed. As she did, she looked back at the helmeted woman, and waved. "Give me a call sometime, yeah?"

"Oh…oh my…" the former schoolteacher blushed deeply, visible even through the silver coating on her face, and fidgeted a bit, feeling oddly entranced by the Titan. "That was…very strange."

* * *

Green Lantern and Superman were, within minutes, in the first level of sub basements under the Tower, where the vehicle garage had been. There were a number of computers and other devices were laying abut, and even a number of tool kits. However, they all belonged to the skeleton staff that had been working out of the Tower for ten years, and the newest tool was about seven or eight months old, and there was a somewhat thick layer of dust over everything, which made Jade's nose wrinkle in mild disgust.

"Oh, yuck. How can they stand this?" She turned to Superman, who was wearing a bit of a smile as he observed the room himself, and ran a finger along one of the remaining large tables.

"Well, the Tower used to be a lot messier, but it looks like Death's Head came through on that part at least. It'll be interesting to see how serious he takes this 'assignment'."

"You're giving him too much slack, Superman. How do you know he won't turn on the kids and leave them on their own."

"As much as I hate to say it, I do have some respect for him…he's saved the universe quite a few times…and Captain America say we should at least give him a decent chance at this before we shut him down." The half-Kryptonian nodded a bit, and began using his x-ray vision to survey the entirety of the floor they were on, and he grunted softly. "Alright, Lantern. We're done on this floor. Let's check the submarine hanger."

"Right." The green girl nodded, smiling a bit, and headed over to the elevator, beating Superman there. "Beat ya." The dark haired man just sighed, and smiled a bit.

"Cute, Jade, cute."

* * *

Wonder Woman had checked out the exercise room, satisfied that everything there had been in order, even testing the weights out a bit herself, before setting them down and heading towards the training room a floor down, her heels clicking against the floor as she walked down the stairs. When she neared the room, she could hear the sounds of things being pounded into the floor and walls inside the rooms. Only slightly curious, she pressed the keypad to open the door, which slid into the way, and revealed a scene of pure carnage, as Thunderstrike continued to smash away at the practice robots, her hair sticking to her face as sweat poured down her face. She was also still cursing, in Norse, so Wonder Woman didn't have a single clue as to what she was saying, but she had a fair idea.

As 'strike smashed the last robot, she finally let out a primal, angry scream, and threw her mace a hard as she could, smashing it into the reinforced wall of the room, just about two feet from Wonder Woman' face, the older superheroine unable to keep from gawking. When the redhead saw this, she went pale, and a hand flew up to her mouth. "Oh, God, I am so sorry! I didn't mean to do that! I was just so mad I--" Cassandra laughed a bit at that, easily regaining her composure – she had gotten used to such feats from adults, but somehow, even with her own past experiences, the children still managed to surprise her – and waving a hand a bit to the redhead, walking over cautiously, stepping over bits of broken robots.

"That's perfectly alright, dear. I understand the sentiment—when I was angry at someone I did much the same, except for with just my fists. Tell me, is it a boy?" Ranko sighed, and nodded.

"Yeah, it is. It's that moron Valkyrion." At that Wonder Woman blinked a bit, a curious expression on her face.

"What did he do?"

"Well, most superheroes' archenemies are villains. Mine happens t'be him," the redhead replied as she walked over to the wall, and with a strong yank pulled her mace out, with a loud screeching sound as it tore out of the metal surface, the Japanese girl grunting softly as she slung it over her right shoulder, and eyed the Amazon warrior. "Anyways, what're you doin' here?" she spoke in slang, relaxed and easy, those blue eyes blinking every few seconds.

"Well, I'm supposed to be checking the training facilities, to see if everything's…working properly…" The Amazon then just noticed the massive amount of destruction the demigoddess had wreaked on the practice room, the floor, wall, and roof all buckled, smashed, rended, and ripped, not to mention the fact that most of the cache of training robots were lying in un-repairable chunks and scraps. "I can see that it's not…"

The redhead blushed a bit, and laughed nervously. "Uh, yeah, sorry 'bout that. Guess I still don't know my own strength, huh?"

"I can tell…"

"'spose you guys'll have to food th' bill for that, huh?" At that Wonder Woman laughed a bit, and raised an eyebrow at the teenager. "What?"

"I'm sure your mother didn't teach you to talk like that…" Ranko went red in the face, and tilted her head a bit to the side

"Sorry…too much TV, maybe." She shrugged, and headed for the exit. "And really, sorry about the mess."

* * *

Cyborg had elected to stay in the All-Purpose room, and had himself hooked up to the mainframe, checking to see if Death's Head really had done everything the way he was supposed to, checking the computers for half an hour or more. Secretly the former teen hero was itching to find something that would give the League and New Titans a reason to disband the new team before their first mission, but much to the man's annoyance, everything was indeed up to date and had the best levels of security. Vic was also a bit frustrated that now the computers were far more secure than when he had first programmed the old systems. Death's Head, despite being so crude and acting stupid whenever he got the chance, was a very, very competent programmer. Then Cyborg noticed something unusual – some of the code markers were actually familiar to him, but they weren't from the Titans or League, or even the Avengers computers.

Then it hit him – he'd seen this kind of programming from his experiences working on the computers of the Fantastic Four. Specifically, Reed Richards' programming. Which, of course, made sense when one knew that Death's Head II, back in the early days of his existence, had assimilated all of Reed's knowledge from his computer mainframe – fortunately for the FF, Reed had a back-up system, considering the process of the Neural Siphon had completely blown out the old one. And now Death's Head was using that knowledge to stay one step ahead of them, and anticipating the Tower's programming needs, and setting everything up so there was no way they could say he was being negligent. In fact, if Cyborg didn't know any better, he'd swear DH wanted this team to work out…

"Are you done yet?" came the irritated voice of the blue and red cyborg, who was standing behind Vic, while Terri and Adam continued to play the video game, while eavesdropping on the two older men. "I'm starting to feel hurt here, Vic, really I am. I went through this system with a fine-toothed comb, so to speak; there's not a single thing wrong with this entire Tower, technically speaking. So stop picking at my programming before I take it the wrong way." Reluctantly, Cyborg unplugged himself, and looked up at Death's head with his red eyes, narrowing them a little.

"Don't get smart with me, Death's Head. You know all of these kids' parents want their children to be kept safe, and a lot of them aren't happy with you being the boss. I know I sure wouldn't be, with you in charge."

"Well, that's just it, isn't it? I'm NOT in charge, you goons are. I'm only doing what you want because it's in my interest. Tell me, do you give Logan this much trouble, or is it just me?" There was a hint of menace to the war machine's voice, as his mismatched eyes narrowed in response to the mild glare he was getting from Cyborg.

"Hmph…Logan's proven himself to us…"

"And I haven't? I've done more good than that furry runt and you know it! Tell me the truth, it's because I was made by A.I.M, isn't it? That's it, right? You don't trust me because A.I.M give you grief."

"Maybe that, and maybe because you have the personality of a stone-cold killer who, unlike Wolverine, has no excuse for what he did other than he did it for money. You're the same way." At that, the blue cyborg laughed, rather loudly.

"Ah, Vic…thank for the compliment."

"Wasn't a compliment."

"It was to me."

Before more words could be exchanged, the main door slid open, and a frazzled looking Bulleeter walked in, followed by a chatting Wonder Woman and Thunderstrike, then after another ten minutes, Superman and Green Lantern. Then, late as usual, Gehenna walked in, wearing her usual costume, affixing the hood over her head, the shadow obscuring the top half of her face, as it did for her mother. Cyborg and Death's Head promptly quieted down, though they were simmering, which was obvious to everyone who had just entered. A-ko waved to the newcomers, blinking a bit as she began counting.

"Hey, there's like…two people missing…"

"Yeah, Nightstar and Mary are out in the city, looking at motorcycles," Beast Girl replied, still mostly engrossed in her game, ears flicking about wildly every so often as she began to move herself to the game, moving about in her seat, jumping up, and gesturing wildly, while Valkyrion calmly remained as he was, a bit amused by her antics. As Beast Girl thrust her backside back, Gehenna calmly walked up to behind her, caught her by the backside of her underwear with a finger, and pulled back, before pulling her finger out, causing the elastic of the waistband to snap, making Beast Girl yelp in surpise. "AHHH! What the feak?!"

Gehenna promptly started to snicker, with attracted everyone's attention, as no one but Death's Head and Cyborg had noticed what the goth-looking girl had done, both of them a bit puzzled by her actions. Beast Girl was now hopping mad.

"Gehenna! You did that, didn't you?!"

"Me? Couldn't be." The pale girl replied, doing her very best innocent looking, hurt face, clasping her hands together over her heart. "Cross my heart and hope to die." A-ko regarded her 'cousin', and blinked.

"Strange girls…"

"Tell me about it."

* * *

End Notes: In case you all are wondering, Gehenna isn't much like her mother. Though the extent of this won't be touched on for a while longer, but trust me, it'll be worth the wait. 


	4. Charnel House: Speed Demons

Tomorrow Titans – The Next Generation

Saga Arc #1: Charnel House

Chapter #3: "Speed Demons"

Disclaimer: Well, I'm not quite sure what to say. It's no secret I'm not fond of disclaimers, as I believe that it's obvious that I do this not for money or any kind of gain at all, and that barring some exceptions, such as Nightstar and other DC/Marvel original characters, the rest are either mine or belong to my friends, as stated before. It'd take too long to go into detail, but some characters belong to, or are inspired by characters owned by, Black Panther's Knight/Whatever name he uses if he changes it at a later date, if that happens. I'll start listing out the ones that aren't mine in a later chapter.

Author's Notes: Same warning as from the previous chapter.

* * *

Deep within the extradimensional Speed Force, two beings were running through time and space, one trying to outrace the other with desperate need, trying to find the right place to 'jump out', as it were. 

The first runner came from a parallel reality different than the ones our heroes hail from, a universe that was untouched by Larry the Titan's mistake, and wasn't fused together to create one universe out of two, with radically different heroes and villains. The first runner had hand that were literally bone, and a flaming, demonic looking skull with largish fangs, and wearing a blue, red, and yellow costume, every move forward leaving a burning trail of hellfire behind him. This was the heroic Speed Demon, Jace Lawrence, who, unlike some of his other counterparts, hadn't been corrupted by the evil influence of his other half, and continued to use his powers for good. However, the second runner had intruded into his reality, and had attacked him for no apparent reason, leading to this race through the Speed Force. A race for Jace's, and Speed Demon's, lives.

The second runner was Pietro Allen, wearing a body suit that was silver along the sides, and dark blue – bordering on black – along most of the torso, front and back, silver goggles, and silver lightning ear caps. He was known as Mercury in his universe, but in the last one he'd been in – before Speed Demon's – he was called Dark Mercury, a name that suited him fine. He'd lost the love of his life, Beast Girl, and became reckless, and vengeful, and began extracting a brutal justice on the villains of his world, not hesitating even if his attacks would lead to the death of another, unless that person was a civilian. As far as he knew, this Speed Demon was as evil as his own, and he hadn't bothered to ask, and even if he had, he wouldn't believe him anyway.

And now the two were running through the Speed Force, Dark Mercury slowly gaining on Speed Demon, until he rammed into the other speedster, the jolt knocking the two of them out of the Speed Force and into a certain parallel universe…

* * *

The two ended up colliding with a passenger bus in Downtown Jump City, tearing through the metal frame with ease, due to their speed and the amount of hellfire Speed Demon was generating to keep from going splat against the bus. As it was, he ended up skidding along the ground as he tried to come to a halt, stopping only inches away from a family. If he could blink, he would, and waved a bit, the child of the family waving back before his parents dragged him away, screaming in panic. Grunting a bit, Speed Demon picked himself back up, shook his head to get rid of any grogginess, and steeled himself as Dark Mercury recovered, and rushed him again… 

The two began throwing rapid-fire, super-speed fueled punches at each other, most of them canceling each other out as their fists collided, before Dark Mercury snapped his finger at super-speed, sending out a sonic boom that sent Speed Demon hurtling through the air, spinning around and hitting the ground with a hard thud. "Ugh!" The demonically-empowered speedster pulled himself up, shaking his head again to get the spots out of his vision, and regarded this newcomer that wanted to put out his lights. "You play for keeps…whoever you are. You may look like Mercury, but you don't act anything like him. And after that crap with those imposter heroes, I'm sick of your kind."

"'My kind'?" The anti-hero regarded Speed Demon in an amused fashion, walking over to him slowly, and prepared to snap his fingers again. "I think you're confused, Gale Force of Hell. You're the bad guy, I'm the good guy. It's as simple as that." The 19 year old prepared to snap his fingers again, but let out a cry as a blast of hellfire struck his hand, singeing his bare fingers and making him pull his hand in close to his chest. Speed Demon let out a laugh, a rather immature one, and made an 'L' sign with his right hand and pressed his hand against his flaming forehead.

"Serves you right, copycat. And what's with this Gale Force of Hell crap? I'm Speed Demon, pal." He stood up, and brushed off his blue pants, and adopted a martial arts stance, as Dark Mercury paused to heal his fingers, and growled dangerously at the other speedster.

"Oh, you're going to regret that, asshole…" the young man snarled, just before Speed Demon snapped his own fingers, in Dark Mercury's face, setting off a sonic boom right in his face and sent him smashing into a car, the metal crumpling around his frame. "…Crap…"

* * *

Not too far away there was a young woman, of 18 years of age, with long black hair in a ponytail, with natural red streaks through it, wearing a dark purple leather jacket, a dark purple pair of PVC pants, dark purple riding boots, dark purple leather gloves, and a pair of black shades with a chain wrapped around her upper torso, leaning against a light post, where she had just parked her motorcycle. It was a chopper-style cycle, chromed and with expensive upholstery, with an oddly placed shotgun holster sporting a sawed off double barrel. She had paused to get a hotdog from a vendor, and was eating it when she heard the first of the sonic booms. "Oh, this just had to happen on my day off…" she muttered to herself as she chucked the half eaten hotdog in the garbage, and got back on her back, hitting the kickstand up and speed off, the air around her beginning to shimmer with heat, until… 

Her body burst into flame, the skin charring and melting away, though she felt no pain, the flesh completely gone from her skull now, leaving it empty-socketed and clean, spikes rising up from her shoulders and the knuckles of her gloves, the bike changing as well, gaining a skull-like front, and the tires turned to fire. This girl was Jonni Blaze, and she was the newest incarnation of the Ghost Rider, driven by an uncontrollable urge to punish the wicked and protect the innocent as best she could, and now, to do that, she had to face whoever was causing the mayhem before her.

* * *

Speed Demon rammed into Dark Mercury, the two of them rolling across the street at superspeed, tearing up the asphalt as they punched and kicked at each other, the platinum haired speedster kicking the other off of him and sending him flying up through the air, to smash down onto the roof of another car, shattering the glass windows and eliciting a groan from the demonic hero. "Holy hell, that hurt…" he groaned, sitting up and rubbing his lower back with one bony hand – if he had a face, it would be twisted up in pain. Dark Mercury smirked, and zipped over, ready to lay out a finish blow when… 

A long chain wrapped around his neck firmly, causing him choke violently, his eyes beginning to swim. He grabbed the chain and tried to vibrate through it, but was stunned to see he had no effect on it…the chain was composed of pure hellfire when Ghost Rider was transformed, and nothing in Heaven or Earth could destroy it. He looked back, and was surprised to see the flaming, featureless skull of the Ghost Rider staring back at him, before she spoke, speaking in a deep, throaty, growling, almost animalistic voice.

"You shall suffer for your endangering of these innocents, villain!" She snarled, yanking on the chain and dragging Dark Mercury back, her powers of a kind of empathy allowing her to know that Pietro Allen had a black, miserable soul, and no matter how justified his actions were, he still had taken life purposefully, he still chose to endanger the lives of others, no matter how wicked they were…for that purpose was the Ghost Rider's. It made no difference to her if the deaths didn't happen in her world…he still had the darkness in his heart, the darkness she had to punish.

For his part, Speed Demon was stunned for a number of reasons. One was at how lucky that save had been – he was sure that the other speedster would've killed him with relative ease, considering how the fight had been going…it was harder for Speed Demon to recover from stronger impacts than other, more living speedsters. It was complex, though. The second reason was that he could tell this stranger was like him, also cursed with demonic powers of a similar type - She even had a flaming skull similar to his. And so, for those reasons and others, Jace Lawrence found himself at a loss for words.

And during all this, the alarm had been sounded, both to the local police force, and the newly activated Titans Tower.

* * *

A loud alarm went off throughout the Tower, though the entirety of the team was in the All-Purpose Room, most on the couch, though Death's Head was off to the side, sipping another cup of tea, the only beverage he wanted right now, considering nearly everyone else present was a minor. Which meant no beer for him. Sighing, he finished his cup and set it down, and headed over to the others, and hit a switch that was located on a device he wore on his non-transforming arm, which patched him into the Tower's systems. A map was now being displayed in place of the image on the screen, which had been from a movie everyone was watching, which caused some sighs of both disappointment and relief from the various members of the team. Death's Head didn't have any particulars, as none of the fighters were in his records, except for the newcomer. 

"Oh my, this is unusual…there's already a superhero there. I think." A-ko perked up, and looked over at him.

"Who? Who's there?" Death's Head checked his information again, and blinked a few times.

"Ghost Rider…or at least a version of Ghost Rider that hasn't been seen yet…whatever the case, we should get there soon…fights with Ghost Rider tend to get…messy. Okay, Beast Girl, you're with me. Turn into something big that can fly that can carry Mary to the location on the screen. Everyone else who can, fly there under your own steam!" Already barking orders, Death's Head exited the room in a hurry, everyone following after him, the fliers already flying. When he had gotten to the roof, he broke into a run, then dived over the edge of the building, one hand upraised. As he fell, A-ko flew down after him, grabbed him by the hand and wrist, and carried him over to the Downtown area as fast as she could, straining a little under the weight. Death's Head looked up at her, barking a bit. "Come on, girl! You can do it!"

"You don't…have to yell…pal," the redhead grunted softly as they grew closer, the rest of the team following behind them in their own unique fashions, Mary standing on Beast Girl's Pterodactyl form's back, her sword drawn, Valkyrion and Thunderstrike being propelled through the air by their weapons, Gehenna and Nightstar floating through the air with ease. Death's Head laughed a bit, and tilted his head a little.

"Don't worry…as soon as we get over the site, drop me. I can survive the fall." When they reached the spot in question, A-ko indeed dropped him, and the cyborg plummeted to the street below, smashing into the ground and creating a rather large crater. "Blaster formation," he said, calmly, his arm morphing into a rather large energy weapon, and he advanced on the scene ahead, Dark Mercury spinning in place and dislodging the Ghost rider finally, only to see the approaching Death's Head. With a bit of a snarl, he blurred forward at Mach 2 and collided with the blue cyborg, sending Death's Head flying through a wall rather fast, the speedster bouncing back after the impact and nearly sprawling on the ground. "Ugh! Little brat…" DH groaned a bit as he stood, blaster still ready, and exited the building he'd been knocked into, while the rest of the Titans landed. Right afterwards, Beast Girl transformed into an octopus, and caught Speed Demon, Dark Mercury, and Ghost Rider in her tentacles, restraining them. Pietro would've fought back, but then he realized exactly who it was that was restraining him, feeling a familiar, wrenching pang in his heart.

"Terri…" he whispered, something Death's Head picked up as his blaster turned back into a hand, and he paused when he made it over.

"Okay, who's the bad guy here? I'm confused…" A-ko spoke, fixing her t-shirt a bit as she regarded the three captives. All at once they each pointed to the other, Ghost Rider and Speed Demon singling out Dark Mercury, and he pointed to them. "Wonderful. Aagh! It's this kind of stuff that makes me wish I stayed home!" It was then that Mar'i spoke up.

"Uhm, this is your first day on the team…" A-ko went red in the face, and rubbed the back of her head with one hand.

"Oh yeah…heh heh." Death's head just sighed, and rubbed his forehead a bit.

"Let's just take them all to the local police station, or S.T.A.R, or something, and figure out what to do from there. Terri, think you can hold them for a bit longer while I call for reinforcements?" A tentacle was raised, and made an O-shape for okay, and Death's Head nodded, getting onto his wrist communicator and calling the authorities. "Yeah, I need a metahuman containment team here…two speedsters, and a hellfire user. And for the love of all that's good, don't mess this up."

* * *

It was hours later, and in one of the city's specially equipped precincts, the two instigators and Ghost Rider had been locked up. Speed Demon remained in his transformed state, while the Rider had changed back into Jonni, who was sullenly sitting on the cot in the cell, legs up to her chin and a fierce look on her face, grumbling under her breath as she would occasionally look out to see those watching her, which was the entire team of Teen Titans and police officers, including a visiting officer and representative of the cross-country police force known as Code: Blue, Michael Badilino – secretly the former vigilante and demonic hell-biker Vengeance – who was merely there to try to get Jonni off the hook. No luck so far, considering the regular police wanted to press charges against all three. As Badilino and the other cops argued, the Titans all shared a look, and a collective sigh, before Death's Head finally spoke up. 

"We can take care of them, if that makes you all feel better."

"Huh?" was the general sentiment from the law enforcers, prompting the 'bounty hunter' to sigh in frustration.

"I mean we can add them to the Titans so they can work off their debt to the city, and if they step out of line, you can throw 'em in jail with no regrets. Easy, yes? Then we're agreed."

"Hold on, mister." One of the cops spoke up, regarding the cyborg suspiciously. "Who are you guys anyways?" Nightstar gave them a stunned look, then laughed a bit.

"Isn't it obvious? We're the Teen Titans." The team all nodded, save for Death's Head, who just put a hand to his domed forhead and sighed.

"I hate that name…" he mumbled, loud enough for everyone to hear. This earned him a bit of a smack from Gehenna, who was the only member willing to annoy the crap out of the killer cyborg/robot. "What? I do. I'm not a teenager. It should be 'Death's Head and the Teen Titans'."

"Oh yeah, like that'll ever happen…" The half-demonic pale girl snorted. It was then that A-ko decided to speak up again.

"But basically, that IS what we are…"

"Oh hush." Gehenna sighed, her turn to put a hand to her forehead. "I'm just kidding…mostly."

"Oh."

Death's Head sighed again, loudly this time, and pushed the two girls apart. "Quiet, both of you. This isn't helping things any." During this little 'discussion,' Beast Girl approached the middle cell, which was keeping Dark Mercury locked inside, and leaned in close, pressing her gloved fingertips against the 'glass'. To her surprise, the anti-hero did the same, and, curious, she pressed her forehead against the glass, to which he did the same. Then she squinted at him, and finally her amber eyes glinted with recognition.

"No way…Peter, is that you?" She whispered to him, not wanting to alert anyone else to her discovery. The older boy just shook his head, smiling a bit.

"It's Pietro, actually…" he whispered back, tilting his head to regard the green girl. Unlike the last Beast Girl he'd met, she didn't seem afraid of him, but then, he hadn't given her any reason to be. However, some of the other people with her puzzled him, as he'd never seen some of them before, and Ghost Rider in particular puzzled him. "Where are the others? Who are these guys?" At first he thought he must be in his past, but then he saw that there was no Mercury with them, Beast Girl called him Peter, and he certainly didn't remember any skull-faced large cyborg with horns and red 'hair' being the team leader.

"What others?"

"Raziel, Bladefire…"

"Who? And who?" She was genuinely puzzled by those names, having never met anyone using them…yet. She shrugged helplessly, and smiled a bit. "Well, don't worry about that…like Death's Head said, you're gonna be one of us now. And I guess you'll meet the version of you here tomorrow…Peter's coming over tomorrow…"

"Oh really? And you're telling me this why?"

Beast Girl giggled a bit. "Well, because here he doesn't have any powers…some kind of lab accident or something cut him off from the Speed Force." When he heard that, Dark Mercury was surprised.

"No powers…?"

"Yep. But I still lo…I mean I still like him…" she went red in the face at that, and there were a few snickers, as some of the team had overheard her. "Hey! Stop laughing, you guys!" Gehenna stuck her tongue out at the other girl, snickering more.

"When you stop swooning."

"Grrrr…" Terri bared her teeth at the other girl, who just reached out and poked her in the nose, making her face skew a bit and a bead of sweat forming on her forehead. "Stop dat."

"Make me." Definitely very Un-Raven behavior. And nearly everyone there noticed it. Jonni banged against her cell 'wall', and was steamed.

"Oh, for the love of…let me out already! I'm sorry for ever getting involved in this mess, don't make me suffer this angst!" She yelled, still banging. With a sigh, Death's Head regarded Nightstar.

"I'm starting to think we should leave her in there…"

"But she was only trying to help."

"She's very noisy."

"Yes, but she is adorable…" A-ko spoke up, blinking a few times at the stares this earned her. "What? She is." Death's head sighed yet again – something it seemed he would never stop doing, apparently.

"Yes, very well. We can all agree Beast Girl is adorable AND noisy. I'm not sure if we can all reconcile those two points, but let's just take the prisoners, fill out all the paper work, and get back to the Tower so I can start training you all to be a real team, yes?" The blue cyborg nodded a bit, getting a groan from all the Titans he had already sparred with, though A-ko and the three imprisoned 'recruits' had no idea what they were in for.

* * *

After what seemed like hours, the Titans finally got Jonni, Speed Demon, and Pietro out of the cells, and were driven to the city's docks, which was as close as the police could get to the Tower. Dark Mercury took off over the water, Speed Demon chasing after him to make sure he didn't try to run, taking the terms of their release rather seriously, while Jonni sighed and willingly transformed into the Rider again, in order to drive her hell-cycle over the water. Death's Head raised his hands, and A-ko and Nightstar each grabbed a hand, and lifted up the heavy cyborg, sharing the load, as everyone took the skies in their own fashion, Thunderstrike carrying Mary this time. 

"You're heavier than y'look, y'know," the redhead commented, with a wry grin, earning her a glare from the silver-haired girl.

"Just keep talking, Red, and see where it gets you."

"Bring it on," the demigoddess grinned more, while Mary grinned back.

"I could take you."

"Keep dreamin'."

"My, this team is so high-strung…" Death's Head commented, the two fliers carrying him nodding some in agreement. "Anyway, faster, ladies. We have a long night ahead of us before you all get to sleep."

"Ugh…" Nightstar groaned, resisting the urge to facepalm, while A-ko stuck her tongue out in an expression of distaste.

"Man, I thought this would be a fun team to join, not a boot camp." That earned her a chuckle from the cyborg she and Mar'i were carrying.

"Oh, come on, it'll be great. It's just in our best interest to work cohesively. I've been on enough teams to know that myself. And frankly, now that we have four new members, I have to make sure they can play along. And I have the perfect exercise in mind, too…" he grinned, laughing almost darkly, and certainly in an amused fashion. When he saw the looks he got from the two teenagers carrying him, he rolled his eyes a bit. "Oh, it's not that serious. It'll be easy…more or less. I'm not going to coddle you – you deserve to be trained properly now so that you'll have more free time later." That caused the two girls to smile softly.

"Well, free time would be nice…I haven't been to the city that long, but I'd love to see the sites…hey, Mar'i, would you mind going out with me?" A-ko smiled to the girl she was flying next to, her cape flapping in the wind. The half-Tamaranean nodded, and laughed softly.

"Oh, sure. I'd love to. I haven't been here enough myself, but just long enough to know where everything is. We could get Terri and Ranko to go with us too…I don't know about Mary. And I'm sure that new girl, Jonni, isn't the type for sightseeing."

"Heh…tell me about it. Did you see those looks she gave us?" The two girls shared a laugh, while down below, the Rider grumbled softly – if she had ears, they'd be burning right now.

* * *

End Notes: And the team grows bigger. Of course, it can only get bigger now. But that won't be too much of a problem – that's what a mega-series is for, right? Proper character development. Please review, if you feel the need or want to. 


	5. Charnel House: Old Friends

Tomorrow Titans – The Next Generation

Saga Arc #1: Charnel House

Chapter #4: "Old Friends"

Disclaimer: As usual, I'd like to say that I do this not for money or any kind of gain at all, and that barring some exceptions, such as Nightstar and other DC/Marvel original characters, the rest are either mine or belong to my friends, as stated before. It'd take too long to go into detail, but some characters belong to, or are inspired by characters owned by, Black Panther's Knight/Whatever name he uses if he changes it at a later date, if that happens. Any other character that appear that I don't indicate who owns them, and they're not mine, then their respective owners will know who they are, if that does happen, though it probably won't..

Author's Notes: Same warning as from the previous chapter.

* * *

In Downtown Jump, the portion of the urban area that had been involved in the previous altercation between the two speedsters had been cordoned off, until Damage Control could get there and begin rebuilding. There wasn't a person around, and the only sounds were the flapping of cordon tape, and the sound of the dust and dirt blowing along the ground as, in explicably, a fierce wind began to blow. Then, as the wind began gale force, a ripple in the area of space where the two had first emerged appeared, then reality itself appeared to tear open as large blue claw tore through it, and if there was anyone there, they would see a dark, shadowy figure emerging from what looked like a shattered city behind the portal it emerged from. The massive figure's demonic feet slammed into the ground as it emerged, and it drew in a large, earth-shaking breath. 

"I…live!" the creature roared, throwing its head back and screaming aloud, startling all of the animals that were still in the area, who promptly ran off, something the creature could sense. "Hah…time to get to work…"

* * *

There was a sense of impatience at the Tower, as a number of guests were going to arrive. The leader of the team was the most impatient, since he felt there wasn't any need to have more guests who were probably going to join the team anyway show up. They already had more than the original line-up, and that was more than enough for Death's Head. He was getting tired of all the kids he was being stuck with, especially the ones who didn't act like they were assumed to. It was rather annoying, yes? 

Mar'i and Terri were squealing a bit as they sat down at the breakfast table, waiting, especially impatient, while waiting for their friends, while Gehenna was also waiting for someone, but reading a book rather than sitting with the others. Oddly, it was a book called 'Faces of Evil', written by a journalist named Ben Urich decades ago, on the subject of the supervillain the Green Goblin, someone who had been casting a shadow over her family for all those decades. She had a somewhat personal interest in the novel, considering the nephew of the author to be her uncle, and having been raised alongside the original Goblin's grandson. She was thoroughly engrossed in the novel, a thin smile on her face, her long hair hanging over one shoulder, occasionally batting it to the side, before checking the slim watch she was wearing on her wrist.

"Azar, this waiting is so boring…" she mumbled to herself, still reading. Finally her cellular phone began to ring, and she smiled softly again, answering it. "You there at the airport yet? Thank God…I was beginning to think you'd never get here…oh, Alice is with you too? That's great. No, don't worry, I'll be by to pick you guys up. The team bought a car last night, and there's an underground tunnel connecting us to the city. I'll be there in like, half an hour. Great. Bye, hon." She closed the phone, and got up, whistling. "The car keys are where, Mar'i?" She held out her hand, and the half-alien girl tossed Gehenna the keys, and the older girl caught them, smiling a bit. "Thank you. I'll be back with my friends in a bit, okay? Don't wait up though."

"Sure, G." Terri waved to the other girl, smiling. "Have fun."

"You know I will."

And with that, Gehenna was gone to change out of her costume into casual clothes. Mar'i gave her green friend a look, and smiled.

"She seems happy about her friends."

"I can guess how she feels…I'm just surprised she's so open now…I mean, remember when she was a shut-in back when we all met when we were younger?" Beast Girl tilted her head a bit, and scratched behind one of her elf ears, smiling a bit and laughing, to which Mar'i nodded and clasped her hands together, setting her elbows down on the table surface.

"Yeah…but she spent a lot of time with us, you know…learnt mostly from my mother how to act and control her emotions, which made her a lot different from her own mother…"

"Meaning Gehenna turned out almost normal?"

"Something like that."

* * *

After about half an hour of driving through Jump City, and indeed going through the underground tunnel, which had its own opening on an apparently dead-end tunnel – which actually just required a DNA and retinal scan to open – the pale girl was enjoying herself. The car was a somewhat expensive convertible, and she had the top down, driving with one hand and with her eyes seemingly closed. However, as she drove, she new exactly when and where to turn, when to slow down, when to stop, and when to speed up, as though something was telling her what to do…or perhaps a sixth sense. She had a big grin on her face as she pulled into the parking area of the Jump City airport, driving through it and parking next to the exit of the building, and waited patiently for about five minutes, before hitting the trunk release button, and motioned to the two girls exiting the airport. "Bags in the trunk, ladies…" she grinned as she stood up a bit in the car, waving them over. She was wearing a blue blouse, and blue jeans, and had her hair in a ponytail. 

The two girls that came out were old friends – One of them had long, platinum blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a white sweater, a black vest, and black jeans, and matching boots, and the other had short dark hair, dark eyes, and wearing an outfit that was mostly dark blue. They dumped their luggage in the back of the car, then the platinum haired girl got into the seat next to the Titan, and the other girl got in the back seat. "Hey, May…miss me?" the white haired girl grinned, leaning in with her head tilted to one side. The purple haired girl tilted her head the other way, and kissed the other girl, prompting a sigh from the dark haired girl in back.

"Of course I did, Felicity…"

"Hey, guys, knock it off. People are staring…" the dark haired girl grumbled some, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back in her seat.

"Oh, come on, Alice. You know we don't care if people stare…" Felicity grinned back at her friend, who kicked the back of the chair she was in. "Hey!"

"You know that stuff makes me uncomfortable…and no, not in that way, you raging perv," she said the last part to cut off the expected reply, the platinum haired girl grinning a bit, then pouting.

"Awww, come on…do you always have to cut me off?"

"Yes, I do. Especially since I don't have to tolerate the crap you give me whenever May's not around…god, its like you're obsessed with her." That made the gothic-looking girl blush deeply.

"Guys, come on…behave already. It's been months since I've seen you guys; don't ruin it by fighting…" she said, snapping her fingers and closing the trunk with a nudge of telekinesis, then started up the engine and began to drive, heading back towards the tower. "Besides, there are other guests here besides you two, so please try to behave."

"Oh, that's something to say, 'Gehenna.' You haven't even told everyone your real name yet, have you?" Felicity snickered a bit, leaning back in her seat and putting a pair of mirrored shades on as she relaxed.

"Well, it's not like everyone knows who my dad is. That little bit of information is still private. Just like you don't go around without your mask on when you go out at night…or have you started doing that now?" At that the other girl went red in the face, and slouched a little, as if trying to sink into her seat.

"Alright, I know you have a point. Just don't make me eat my words anymore, okay? It gets old."

There was some laughter from the other two girls in the car, as they drove down the streets of Jump, and headed for the secret underground tunnel entrance.

* * *

Back at the Tower, Death's Head had plugged himself back into Cyberspace, to carry out a few last minute changes to the training schedule, as well as to program a 'special' training program that would get the team ready to face anything anyone would throw at them. He was having a bit of guilt over doing it, but that was easily quashed and he went on his merry cyber-way, programming the most complex and overall 'big' programming job ever done for a VR-simulation, beating out anything the X-Men could do. 

Beast Girl and Nightstar were still giggling and waiting, until finally the entrance doors slid open, and in walked one Peter Allen, son of the current Flash Bart Allen and Carol Bucklen-Allen, Bart's first love interest, and lacked a connection to the Speed Force, or so it was said, to explain his lack of powers. Following him was Lian Harper, in her costumed identity of the Red Arrow, based on her 'uncle' Oliver Queen. Dark Mercury was sitting down on the couch, and turned around to see who had come in, a mild look of surprise passing over his face as he saw his 'normal' counterpart enter the room, in regular casual clothes. He was then nudged by Ranko, with whom he was playing a video game.

"What?" he asked her, somewhat annoyed, as it wasn't like him to take part in things with others much now, as he was far more serious than his other counterpart in that other reality, but found he had no choice right now, as they'd stuck a device on his ankle that would set off an alarm if he left the building, judging him to be a greater danger to people than Speed Demon or Ghost Rider.

"Keep giving me that look and you'll know how it feels to get hit with lightning, sparky-pants," she gave him a glare that would make her mothers proud, and hit pause on the game, slouching back in her spot on the large couch. "Feel like trying out the training simulator? Anything's better than listening to these guys giggle all th' time." The redhead stood up, grabbing her mace as she went by, and exited the all-purpose room, closely followed by Dark Mercury, who cast a glance back at his other self, as well as back to Terri, who just blinked as the two left. Death's Head soon unplugged himself and got up as well, coughing a bit.

"I'm going to go watch those two, have them try out a few of my new training exams I set up…you guys get the day off today because all the team isn't here. And tell Jonni when she's done in the garage that she has to call for the takeout. I don't trust either of you to not run up the bill." The blue cyborg waved one hand as he exited the room after the others, leaving Peter and Lian confused, and Terri and Mar'i embarrassed.

"What was that about?" Peter finally asked. Terri laughed a bit, nervously, lacing her fingers together and trying to look innocent.

"Uhm…last night we had some take out, and we ended up spending…around a hundred dollars on stuff we didn't really have to get." Lian whistled in appreciation at that.

"Man, that's a lot…"

"Tell me about it…but we had more guests than we thought we'd have, so we had to get more than what we agreed on…didn't realize how much that A-ko girl would be able to eat…" Mar'i giggled a bit at that, before covering her mouth a little and finally laughing louder.

"A-ko?" Both visitors didn't know who that was. Fortunately, the owner of said name at that moment walked in through the main door, running a gloved hand through her hair and panting a bit. She had a towel over her shoulders, and workout clothes on, and made a bee-line for the refrigerator to get something cool to drink.

"Her." Terri simply pointed as the redhead began downing bottle after bottle of bottled spring water, tossing each one back over her shoulder when she was finished.

"Ah."

A-ko finished her drinking finally, and went over to the couch, falling down on it and closing her eyes. "I'm gonna take a nap…wake me up when it's dinner time, 'kay?" Without waiting for a response, the half-Kryptonian half-Amazon fell asleep, snoring somewhat as she rolled onto her back. Everyone still in the room had a collective moment of mild disbelief before sharing a chuckle.

"So…where's the rest of the team at?" Lian finally asked, running her own hand through her own shorter, straighter, and lighter-colored red hair, removing her red domino mask and tilting her head to the side. Mar'i shrugged a bit, and leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table, as many people seemed to be doing lately.

"Well, let's see…Valkyrion wanted to sightsee, Jonni went down to the subbasements to work on her motorcycle, Speed Demon – a new guy from another reality – went to help her for some reason, Pietro and Ranko just left, Mary's off doing who knows what, and Gehenna went to pick up her friends at the airport…"

"Oh, that's ni—w-wait, did you just say Gehenna?" Lian did a double-take, eyes going wide. Mar'i and Terri nodded, smiling pleasantly, the smiles faltering a bit as the redhead groaned and slouched in her seat. "Man, I was hoping really hard I wouldn't run across her again…not after that last Christmas party…" The other three teens at the table all shared a look, then glanced back at the blushing Lian – it was no secret that Lian was a bit promiscuous, to put it mildly, and was just as sexually outgoing as her father and 'uncle' (which was a nice way to say they slept around, but with some restraint, and with use of protection), except she didn't stick to the one gender – and wondered what their other friend had to do with this. Finally the redhead spoke, still a bit embarrassed. "Well, at that party we…uh…had a bit much to drink and started to make out, and…ugh…Dad walked in on us."

"Oh my," was Mar'i's response, while Peter laughed a bit, and Terri gave Lian a pat on the shoulder

"Man, that had to be embarrassing for you."

"Tell me about it. Dad just gaped like a fish out of water, and Gehenna just lay there, trying not to laugh at me…which she did anyway. She was such a jerk about it…"

"That probably explains why people don't like her around too much…but did you ever wonder why she acts that way?" Peter posited that question, a curious look on his face as the others all thought on that, occasionally being interrupted by A-ko's snoring on the couch.

"I always thought she was doing it to annoy her mother…from what I've seen, they haven't really gotten along much…" Terri finally said, breaking the mostly-silence, prompting a bit of conversation between the small group.

"You know, I've always wondered why she never became a superhero like her parents until now, unlike the rest of us who could…and she doesn't seem to have much grasp on magic either. All I've ever seen her do is fly, and fire mystic bolts and some telekinesis…" Lian looked thoughtful, rubbing her chin a bit as she leaned back in her chair, her quiver and bow resting by the side of the table. "I mean, it's like she's doing it half-assed on purpose…"

"Or she's hiding something…" Mar'i cut in, crossing her arms under her chest, and hmm-ing a bit. "I mean, why did she even join the team in the first place? I don't doubt she wanted to help people, but…it just reeks of a cover story…"

"Well, why don't you ask her when she gets back…should be about…five minutes if you told us right…" Peter nodded a bit, smiling as he ran a hand through his white hair, and blinked a few times. Everyone else shared a nod, and at that point Mar'i's stomach could be heard growling, which caused the half-alien to blush with embarrassment, and the others to laugh good-naturedly, Lian producing a cell-phone from her belt.

"Why don't I call us a take-out place? Who wants Chinese?"

"Chinese is good." Peter nodded, leaning back and looking up at the roof. Terri raised a hand with one finger pointing upwards, and was about to say something before Lian interrupted her, a smile on the redhead's face.

"And don't worry, Terry, I'll make sure there's an order of Tofu there too for you." Satisfied, the animorph dropped her hand, and slouched in her chair as well, one arm draped over the back.

"Man, it sure is quiet in here, huh?" Peter finally said, breaking the quiet again. Everyone nodded, and sighed.

"How long you guys in town for? And you could stay here if you want…we have plenty of rooms…" Terri offered, blushing softly as she pushed some of her hair out of her eyes, batting them shyly at Peter, who blushed as well, while Lian snickered softly, but not in a mean fashion, and leaned back in her chair. "Lian…you're as bad as everyone else…" Mar'i giggled softly, and stretched her arms back over her head, sticking her chest out a bit, prompting Lian to mock-wolf whistle, to embarrass her friend, which worked.

"Lian!"

"Heh heh…sorry, Mar'i."

* * *

It was about the time that the takeout arrived and was paid for that 'Gehenna'/May and her friends arrived at the tower, and entered the All-Purpose room. May, for one, was surprised to see yet another large group assembled for a meal of Chinese food, amongst other things, while her two friends were gaping a bit. 

"Holy…that…is a lot of food." Felicity said, blankly, pointing forward with one finger and staring, while Alice just nodded. May sighed, and rubbed the bridge of her nose, and headed over to the large table, seating herself down, and shooing some of her teammates away so her friends could sit down.

"I see you broke out the large table, boss," she remarked, to which everyone looked towards Death's Head, to see his response, as he began drinking a soda.

"I figured since we were going to have so many guests, I might as well get the big table out…I have a feeling we're going to need it, with this team constantly getting so big on us." There was a smattering of commenting on that, where basically everyone agreed, and at which point Alice and Felicity sat down, and joined in on the eating. "Everyone, help yourself before A-ko begins to cram it in her mouth like last night. I am NOT paying for a second ordering of this crap." There was a bit of loud laughter at that, mostly from those with a sense of well-adjusted humor – which was nearly everyone – and at which point the team and their guests began to eat ravenously.

* * *

On the outskirts of the city, there was a three story, large building, with many underground levels. This building proudly bore the Lexlabs logo on the outside sign, with the wording 'A subsidiary of Lexcorp' beneath the lab's logo. This lab was supposedly there to create new medical technology and advanced prosthetics for those who had lost their limbs in accidents, though in truth the reality was far more sinister – the lab was actually host to a series of super-soldier experiments on both homeless people, volunteer subjects, and even test-tube grown subjects, all of which were put through genetic enhancements, then at some point had cybernetic augmentation done. This was Lexlabs' little dirty secret of the month, though they couldn't take all the credit for the heinous deeds that were performed there. 

No, the lab was actually funded by Advanced Idea Mechanics, the creator of the Minion series of cyborgs/artificial humanoids, and they were trying to rebuild all of their work, using the files and plans of Doctor Evelyn Clarice Sarah Necker, from her time in 2005 when she presented A.I.M with the prospective Minion Project, which was from her time in an alternate 2020, which ultimately became altered, though those who experienced time travel back to 2005 still remembered every bit of it, though they hadn't seen Necker since the defeat of Charnel's second incarnation, as she was caught in a time blast, and propelled somewhere through time, though the truth was somewhat obvious, given how well the project was going – Necker was alive and well, in the year 2030, having only been thrust about twenty-five years into the future, to resume work on her Minion project, to create another cyborg that could defeat Death's Head II…except now she was being far more careful with her choices of subjects, doing her best to ensure none of them would turn on her.

She was at work now, converting one of the test tube creations of Lexlabs into a cyborg, her and her team wearing surgical greens. This subject would be their first success, the body similar to the one she had made in 2005, into which the 'mutant' Kite had been surgically grafted, only for her to find out that she had actually give Kite the means to find and fuse with his future 'self'/half to become Charnel again. However, she liked the body design, as it put Minion's to shame – she still addressed Death's Head II as Minion, the name of the project that created him. This subject had been used in the cybernetic testing because it had been programmed to obey its creators, in a far more efficient and reliable manner than her previous creations, of which the only loyal one was the dim-witted and drunken Minion Prototype Death Wreck, who had only recently returned to her after she brought it to this time, along with the girl he had been with, and kept them both in the installation, away from the experiments, using Death Wreck as a way to test out the new cyborgs as they were mass-produced, each one with a hidden command to protect Necker above all else.

You see, Doctor Necker was a paranoid, terrified woman – ever since Minion became Death's Head, and learned that he had actually once been a living person (who wasn't so living after the procedure had grafted the cybernetics and replacement organs into the fleshy shell), she had been terrified that he would return for her, and kill her for her presumed sins against Nature and God. So she wanted to create a bodyguard, to protect her. She had tried before with Death's Head III, the name she had given to the cyberised Kite, who had also turned on her. Just like Minion had, and Death Metal after him. Nothing she had done worked with these cyborgs, so now she was more willing to use less-lethal but indeterminately more obedient creatures Lena Luthor provided her with, and with Lena and A.I.M's backing, she was creating a far more efficient force of cyborgs, which were all secretly created to obey her, overriding every command that tied them to Luthor and the other A.I.M scientists on the project. She knew she was far too valuable to both parties, as only she knew the way to create more Minions, which had became a necessity since the first successful Minion had joined the superheroes in the new 2020, at the behest of a near-immortal alien time traveler called 'the Doctor'; a contingency plan was needed, and this was it – the perfect, most powerful cyborg 2030 had ever seen.

However, outside that lab, a spatial rift open, and the massive blue figure that appeared in Downtown Jump emerged, setting off a series of security alarms, and alerting heavily armed guards to its presence. As they began firing their not-so primitive projectile weapons, the bullets bounced off its external shell, and it advanced, its right arm transforming, morphing, adapting itself to the shape of a large, blunt, metallic hammer, at which point it began to run, its loud footfalls echoing on the paved ground as it ran faster and faster, and then, with a battle roar, it lashed out, slamming the blunt instrument into the first guard's chest, knocking the air out of him and breaking a few ribs., the second guard flinching and radioing for backup, just in time to be have the skull-faced creature's morphing claws slice open his armor, and drawing blood, making him fall down, screaming, which filled the radios of the other security officers. The security doors to the lab hissed open, and more and more, wearing complete body armor and carrying much bigger, much deadlier weapons, and began firing.

As each rail gun shell connected with the beast, they exploded. More and more were fired, and more and more explosions rocked the ground, the tremors echoing all the way through the building, felt even down in the basements and subbasements.

"Hold it!" the man in charge of the force cried out, and the shelling stopped. The smoke began to clear, and to their horror, the blue, gold, and red monster was still standing there, hardly a scratch on it, though a close examination would revealing dripping orange goo/fluid sealing up what few damages were made to the shell the malevolent force they were facing inhabited. It laughed, a booming, dark, evil sound, that chilled these men to the bone, for they were hardly innocent, yet each one of them prayed to a savior long-abandoned, pleading silently that this would not be the night they die. The blue right arm was raised, and began changing shape again, turning into a large pulse beam-based weapon, the twin barrels snapping open and the energy charging through the weapon, which began humming loudly.

"DIE, WORMS!" the thing cried, its first actual spoken words, firing off a massive pulse of energy that struck the centre of the ranks of the security troopers, nearly vaporizing those it struck, and wounding and maiming those it didn't directly strike, sending charred and smoking, dying bodies all over the place. The weapon began to hum again, and it took aim, this time at the sealed front doors of the lab, and fired again, the beam bigger this time as the energy was collected for a longer period, the beam striking the sealed door, melting it and causing it to explode. The beast chuckled darkly, its arm reforming into a clawed hand as it began to stalk forwards, footsteps booming with each forward motion. "Pathetic."

It left the dead and dying, and entered the lab, looking for its next victims, a hungry look on its 'face.'

* * *

End Notes: And here ends another chapter, this time on an actual cliffhanger. I don't really care how this makes me look; this chapter called for a cliffhanger, which may become a common occurrence in my stuff, you never know. Hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And as for the identity of the monster in this chapter, you'll find that out in the next few chapters, or at least in the conclusion. 


	6. Charnel House: New Enemies

Tomorrow Titans – The Next Generation

Saga Arc #1: Charnel House

Chapter #5: "New Enemies"

Disclaimer: As usual, I'd like to say that I do this not for money or any kind of gain at all, and that barring some exceptions, such as Nightstar and other DC/Marvel original characters, the rest are either mine or belong to my friends, as stated before. It'd take too long to go into detail, but some characters belong to, or are inspired by characters owned by, Black Panther's Knight/Whatever name he uses if he changes it at a later date, if that happens. Any other character that appear that I don't indicate who owns them, and they're not mine, then their respective owners will know who they are, if that does happen, though it probably won't..

Author's Notes: Same warning as from the previous chapter. Oh, and a warning that strong language may be used, as well as the presence of off-'screen'/between scenes violence.

* * *

A loud klaxon sounded in Titans Tower, Death's Head sleep cycle cutting off as he was reactivated from his 'slumber', grunting a bit as he headed out of his room and began banging on the bedroom doors as he walked down the hall, some of them opening, others not. Sighing, he headed for the subbasement where the Quinjet they had been loaned, which had arrived during the impromptu supper, and began waiting for whatever members of his team he could get, not holding out much hope for a full line up.

* * *

The first door to be banged on was May's, who groaned loudly and ran a hand through her long hair, which was hanging over her shoulders and chest. She tried to get up, and felt a weight on her. She couldn't place it, till she slapped her forehead – which was minus one chakra gem – and looked down on the person lying at her side, and on a good half of her – Felicity. The two had spent the night together, rather passionately at that, and had fallen asleep together. Now the gothic-looking girl extricated herself from her girlfriend, and looked about, groaning. She headed for her closet, and grabbed a familiar costume out of habit, and slid into a pair of underwear before pulling on the lower half of the costume, and then the top half after putting on a thin bra, pulling the mask down over her face, before sliding on the gloves and boots that went with it. Yawning, she headed out of her room, and ran down the hall, guessing she was to head to the hangar, not realizing she was wearing the wrong costume…

* * *

Ranko woke up rather quickly, having been trained to wake up at a moment's notice, used to dealing with lechs and pervs and crazy people wanting to stamp her life out just because she was born. And so, she bolted out of bed, still wearing most of her costume, and pulled on what she wasn't wearing, the top, the vest, the boots, and grabbed her mace, and headed out, noticing May ahead of her, and the odd costume she was wearing. Chuckling a bit, she ran alongside her teammate, and tilted her head a bit, regarding her curiously.

"What's with the costume?"

"Huh? What do you…aww, damnit!" The pale girl cussed as they made it to the elevator, and pressed the call button, waiting for it to arrive…as that was the same method Death's Head used to get down below as well. "I put on the wrong costume…I didn't even know I had this one left…huh."

* * *

Tossing and turning. Tossing. Turning.

Those three words were what summed up Jace Lawrence's nights ever since becoming Speed Demon, tricked into accepting the power in a moment of weakness, and becoming demonically-empowered, seeking out those who committed crimes of various sorts and punishing them in various ways, as well as getting some free reign over what he did. But it was beginning to get old. No one his age should have to see the things he's seen, to do the things he's done. And even now, even in a world that wasn't his own, he was forced to pay for his rash decisions, never a moment's peace as he tried to sleep.

When the alarm set off, it woke the teenager up easily, and he jumped out of bed, heading for the door, the sound of burning flesh arising, as well as the stink of sulfur, and thus Speed Demon exited the room, running at the same pace as a normal, non-Speed Force wielding person, meeting up with the rest of his team in the hall, just as the last door in the hallway slid open…

* * *

In the guest room near the elevator, Alice was awoken, from a rather vivid dream, about one of the new guys – Jace. The way the light shone off his red glossed hair, and those gold eyes…it just attracted her. Not that she was one to talk about unusual hair and eyes. She had a unique parentage on her mother's side, and used the 'gift' her father had given her recently to hide that parentage, except from May, who was like her in a lot of ways. Except for the part about her choice in girlfriends. That part was where they differed – Alice saw Felicity as a superhero hanger-on, using the gifts from her mother to live a lifestyle she couldn't normally have, and at times her presence was actually of counter-benefit to May, who ended up getting hurt more protecting the other girl.

Alice may have been a friend to both girls, but she didn't have to tolerate such needless things.

When the alarm went off, she screamed in pain, her pajamas ripping and becoming a blue and white second skin, the gooey substance flowing over her exposed skin and sealing her off, a mouth with jagged teeth forming, and a long tongue wiggled out of her mouth, the girl gripping her head tightly. The skin finished forming, parts of the costume raising up in a ragged web-like pattern, forming a distinctive spider logo on the chest and back, similar to her father's, and the web designs on the front torso, hands, legs, and head mimicked that of the old Spider-Man costume. Snarling, the transformed teenager stormed out of the room, tendrils extending from her suit and tearing into the walls, finding the alarm's connection wire and tearing it out, causing the painful sound to fade. While nearly everyone tensed up, the girl saw a familiar face – May, in her own black/blue and white costume, snickering a bit as she kept her face mask down around her neck.

"Nice, Alice. You do realize you're going to have to pay for that."

"They can bill us." She-Venom/Venom II snarled as the elevator arrived, and she joined the others on it, as they all headed down to the subbasement.

* * *

When they arrived, Death's Head was sitting at the base of the retractable walkway to the Quinjet, looking as bored as he could manage, since his face couldn't really convey that much emotion, but his voice? His voice was quite effective at expressing how he felt.

"What. The. Hell. Took. You?" he said those five words, on their own, with a forceful edge to each word that made all four teens flinch, and flinch hard. Without bothering to say anything else, he stood and boarded the aircraft, hitting a switch on his wrist band to open the back-door passageway for the jet to enter and exit the building's lower level. The others shared a look at each other, then boarded as well, May tugging up the mask that was around her neck, covering her face with a black/blue mask with white eye lenses, that went up to her hairline. The front of the costume had a similar spider logo to Venom's, and a similar color scheme, though with white on the gloves, and around the bands on her legs, and could also sport a backpack, though she didn't have that with her. Speed Demon eyed the two, and whispered to her.

"Nice outfit…you two have a common fashion sense…" He remarked, in an obvious fashion, though to be fair he had never seen either outfit before in his world. Before he could say anything else, Death's Head began speaking.

"Okay, before we all socialize our heads off, we have a job to do. It's a job some of you won't like. We have to defend what's left of a Lexlabs building from an as-yet-unknown threat that seems to be doing a hell of a lot of damage." There was a loud groan from everyone there, as they all know what getting involved with a Luthor, Lex or Lena especially, entailed, even if they all weren't from the same universe, or ran in the same social superhero circles. "Yeah yeah, it sucks to be us. Anyway, the place is apparently doing cyborg research, though I haven't been able to find out what exactly because I didn't have time to cyber-hack into the main computer. Now, I want all of us to be on our guard – the threat is apparently a cyborg itself, armed with a variable weapons system…" As Death's Head spoke, a flicker of recognition appeared in his eyes. "Oh no…" with that, he gunned the engine, blasting the jet out of the building and zooming towards the battlesite, not bothering to let the others do up their safety belts, nearly dislodging everyone from their seats.

"Hey, what the hell?!" May shot, gripping her seat tightly, using every ounce of her considerable strength to stay where she was, looking furiously at the team leader.

"This thing sounds a lot like something I've fought twice before, alright? And in both instances, this thing spelled bad news for everything that's alive. If whatever's attacking this lab is anything like what I'm thinking it is, we have to take it down hard and fast! If we're lucky, we'll be able to kill it…literally speaking."

"Sounds serious," Ranko spoke up, yawning loudly, causing everyone else to groan a bit and slap their foreheads.

"Oh, it is, it is…" the former mercenary spoke darkly, in a tone that worried those that were sharing the Quinjet's space with him.

* * *

By the time the jet had arrived, half the building had been leveled, the creature having moved on to one of the lower levels. Death's Head went first, running forward, and snapping only two words – "Blaster Configuration!" – as he ran, his arm transforming into a rather large blaster with a magazine in it, running through the burning wreckage and wrecked steel, while Speed Demon ran through the mess at super speed, checking for any survivors. When he rejoined the group, his posture was more sagged than it was before. May looked at him, pulling her mask down and gagging a bit at the acrid smell of burning earth, metal, and even flesh, quickly pulling the mask back up.

"Did you…?" She started, before Speed Demon shook his flaming skull/head.

"They're all dead…and the devastation…even if those guys work for Luthor, this is no way to go…" Everyone shared those sentiments, as Venom walked through the mess, sidestepping any fire uneasily, the surface membrane of the symbiote 'skin' turning into a dripping, wax-like substance as she walked, threatening to peel away from her and fall around her in a puddle…and as she was only wearing a small bra and matching panties, that would be highly embarrassing. May snickered softly, and walked past her friend, making sure her own gloves were down around her wrists, exposing on each wrist an odd pattern on the skin, almost a deformation, and then put her middle two fingers together, pressing against her palm…and with a squirting sound, a white sticky substance shot from the spots on her wrists, splattering all over the fires and putting them out.

"Thanks, May…" Alice sighed in relief as the other girl went ahead of her, continuing to put out the fires as she went along.

"Think nothing of it. I wasn't called Spider-Girl just because I could stick to walls, after all," the purple haired girl finished putting out the fires, and managed to see the team's leader jump down a broken elevator shaft, and sighed. "Come on, people. He ain't making this easy…" She chased after him, and jumped down the shaft, moving to the side, and making contact with her fingers and feet, adhering to the surface of the shaft, and began crawling down, Venom following after her, with Speed Demon sliding down the shaft's cable slowly, occasionally tightening his grip to slow down and loosening to go faster, Ranko doing the same thing and being careful not to hit him with her mace, as she had it had her side, dangling off the hook on her belt. "Man, what stinks…?" May grunted as the smell of something foul penetrated her mask. When they made it to the bottom, May and Venom were the first to climb out of the doors, pushing them open as they did, then taking a look around as their teammates emerged. Speed Demon began zipping through the halls, eventually finding a trail of very fresh destruction, and motioned for everyone to follow him, which they did.

By the time they got there, they could see Death's Head screaming at an attractive redheaded scientist, who was cowering, and several partially destroyed Minion cyborgs, all looking like more sinister versions of the already-sinister enough Death's Head II. The cyborgs were repairing themselves, though, and would be on their feet in seconds…if not for Venom and May webbing them down with a thick double-layering of webbing, which began to exhaust the pale girl, whose own webbing was harder to replenish on the fly…as her father once said, she'd have to eat a whole lot of twinkies to get over this. Death's Head paused in his berating of the woman, who was visibly shaken by something or another – perhaps whatever had caused all of this mess in the first place – and wasn't looking any better once her reinforcements were tied down.

"Hey, boss, what's going on?" Ranko…Thunderstrike…asked as she walked up, looking around curiously. Death's Head sighed, before pushing the redhead forward, Venom and May catching her easily as she fell over.

"This is Doctor Necker, the nutjob that made this body and caused the fiasco that resulted in me being Death's Head II. She's been making illegal Minion-type cyborgs here…cyborgs that are constructed primarily by A.I.M. She's saying something blue came down here, and started wrecking the building, looking for A.I.M's HQ, not realizing this is a Lexcorp building. Secure her, please." At that, May and Venom both bound Necker's hands behind her back, and then stuck the woman behind some rubble, webbing her in place before going back, and noticing they were in front of a large vault that had the door burned open. Intermittent vapors would emerge, cold vapors. "This is where Lexcorp had an Iceborg installed to keep in contact with their A.I.M partners…big ugly must be in there, trying to find out where to go…come on people, stay close, but not too close – be ready for anything."

Everyone nodded, and followed the blue cyborg, entering the freezing vault, and gaped at what they saw inside, when the massive blue monster turned. Everyone froze, even Death's Head, his jaw dropping. The figure looked almost exactly like Death's Head, the same shades of blue and red, the same red hair/neck wires, the same horns, the same skull-faceplate, the same everything, only twisted and distorted and skewed into a monstrous form. Death's Head growled, and took aim with his blaster, finally speaking. "Charnel…"

The creature looked surprised as its name was used. "You know who I am? Curious…you appear to be the original Minion…tell me, what reality am I in?"

"One where Minion absorbed the first Death's Head, and made me…I've dealt with other versions of you before, Charnel…you'll go down as easy as they did."

"Oh really now? This should be interesting then." The creature's arm morphed, back into the pronged beam weapon it had used to enter the building, smirking…as it appeared to have one human eye, and a human lower face, rather than just gumless teeth and exposed skull. "Prepare to die…Death's Head."

"EVERYONE…SEPARATE!" Death's Head screamed as he pushed Ranko out of the way, causing everyone else to fall back as the massive weapon fired, the beam firing past the five Titans and slamming into the wall farther away from him, melting the way away and tearing into the sensitive wires and machinery, scorching the metal and plastic and everything else away. May then fired off a webline, which hit the blue monster square in both eyes, making him roar in outrage as he morphed his arm back to normal, to claw at the webbing on his faceplate. Death's Head took the opportunity to run forward, firing his own blaster arm repeatedly, the blasts slamming into Charnel, and driving it back, tearing into the metal shell that surrounded the malevolent entity, causing large amounts of orange nano-fluid/goo to burst forward, splattering over the floor and causing Speed Demon to nearly slip and fall down as he surged forward, and began ramming his Hellfire-encompassed fists into Charnel's abdomen, each one tearing into the monster, as though its hide was weak, and unable to resist the attacks of the heroes.

The truth was, while Charnel was off-balance, and unable to concentrate, his hide indeed weakened, enough that a punch or kick of sufficient force would penetrate and splatter nanotech solutions everywhere, but while the creature was on the offensive, it was near impossible to do any damage.

Thunderstrike took aim with her mace, and fired an enchanted blast of thunder, which burned through the alternate Charnel's outer shell, scorching a hole through him that began to seal almost as quickly as it was created. The redhead grunted in annoyance, and took aim again. When the hole began to seal again, Venom and Spider-Girl/May took aim themselves, and began filling the hole with web-fluid, which caused the healing process to become impeded, weakening Charnel considerably. Death's Head lunged forward, his arm shifting as he did. "Hammer configuration!" He cried out as his arm morphed into a large, blunt hammer, smashing it into the necromancer's solid faceplate and cracking it, exposing what appeared to be, but couldn't really be, human flesh.

"Away from me, worms!" he bellowed, lashing out with his arms and striking Death's Head across the chest, tearing deep furrows into his own armor and exposing his innards, though the damage began to seal as he fell back, while Charnel lifted a foot, and slammed it down, sending a shockwave that toppled Speed Demon and Thunderstrike, Spider-Man and Venom only still upright because of their ability to stick to almost any surface, though they trembled and shook and nearly fell anyways, bending a little back and forth, yelping as finally they stumbled back, and took up a battle pose. Charnel finally tore the web-fluid out of his eyes, snarling animalistically, regarding the heroes before him with a hate-filled gaze. "You filthy whores!" He directed at the two spider-themed heroines, and lunged forward, his stomach/abdomen beginning to seal up, as the webbing was dissolved by the nano-paste, gripping them both tightly around the necks and choking them, though after a few moments, her head swimming, Alice's symbiote responded by causing spikes to expand from her neck, and pierce the beast's blue hand, making him drop the first girl, at which point she used her own claws to stab into his other arm, forcing him to drop the nearly-passed out May, who began coughing violently as she struggled to breathe.

"Oh…th-thanks, Al…" she managed to say hoarsely, as her friend moved back a ways, Charnel lunging forwards. She raised one hand up, at which point it began to glow black, and with a loud sound like an beam firing, a black bolt of mystic force erupted from the palm of her hand, and sent Charnel flying backwards, smashing through the walls of the building as he came to a halt in the Iceborg chamber, barely managing to halt his progress before he smashed into the delicate machine. "Take that, a-hole…" she groaned, her friend helping her to stand as she wobbled and rubbed her neck. "Damn, that hurt…"

For a moment all was quiet, and Death's Head was amazed that they had lasted this long – he hadn't gotten around to training the team with the 'real' Charnel simulations yet, but here they were, holding their own against this other version. Of course, they could still die yet…

Charnel emerged from the chamber after a few moments, grunting. It was about this time that the new Minion cyborgs reactivated, and began advancing on the hastily assembled team, rather than Charnel, even Necker surprised for a few moments. Then she realized she'd programmed the cyborgs to fight their predecessor, and not any kind of Charnel, which was just enough time for the beast to go back into the chamber, and begin downloading information into its brain, smirking noticeably as it began asking questions and finding out what it needed to know, especially about the universe it landed in. Meanwhile, the ersatz Titans were surrounded, all the Minions morphing their right arms into weapons of various sorts, Death's Head trying to keep most of the team shielded with his own body, saying a number of foul things about the other cyborgs' parentage, including about Necker, which offended the redhead to no end.

"Hey! I heard that, Minion!" she shot back at the annoyed cyborg/mercenary.

"It's Death's Head, you damn lunatic! Get that part right!" he growled as he opened fire finally, his arm in the form of a grenade launcher-type weapon, the shell hitting the first cyborg approaching them and blowing it back, leaving a hole in its chest that began sealing up, but at a reduced rate. Death's Head huh-ed, then shot at the others, hitting each in the chest, though not all of them fell down. One of them continued to approach, while another staggered back. The first one had Venom's claws tearing into its insides as a result, causing it to short out and fall down in a heap, while Spider-Girl simply kicked the other in the abdomen, cracking it open there as it fell back as well.

"Huh, these guys break too easy." Speed Demon noted, prodding one of the fallen with the edge of his boot, jerking his foot away at super-speed when that mechanoid began to twitch and spasm abruptly, multicolored fluids spurting out from the cracks in its chest. Death's Head chuckled, and tilted his head back a bit, regarding the flaming skulled youth.

"They're inferior models, I'm guessing. Either they were made with sub-standard parts or 'donors', or Charnel there really softened them up…but we'd better hurry. While these bozos are down, we can stop Charnel from escaping. Trust me, if this guy gets away, we'll all suffer for it later in the worst possible way!" With that the blue and red cyborg charged the Iceborg vault, the teens all sharing a look before following after him.

By the time they got in there, the complex computer memory system had been destroyed, every bit of information necessary uploaded into the necromancer's mind, a wide grin on his face. "Thank you, Death's Head…children. Dealing with that little distraction gave me just enough time to get the information I need. I now know everything about this world…all you heroes, your weaknesses, your abilities…everything I need to take you down. And now, I'll bid you all adieu."

"NO!" Death's Head roared as he lunged forwards, arm morphing into a blade, and, followed by Speed Demon and Venom, brought it down through the space the alternate Charnel was occupying, space folding around the villain, resulting in a teleport affect. When he was gone, Death's Head kicked the remains of the Iceborg, then began to throw a fit, ripping the machinery out of the wall and tossing it about, screaming at the top of his synthetic lungs, hands in the air and outstretched, as he just vented all of his rage, frustration, and impotence into the loudest scream any of those present had ever heard, and even those who had no sonic weakness winced at the sound, which caused a slight ringing in their ears.

"Well, damn," the redhead Thunderstrike finally said, rubbing her ears, as were everyone else except Venom, who was twitching a bit, her second skin trembling slightly as the remains of the Iceborg exploded, catching the team's temporary leader in the explosion, but leaving him no worse for the wear. "Was that really necessary, boss?"

"No, but it made me feel better. Now, let's get the hell out of this rank hole before anyone shows up to ask stupid questions. Oh, and girls, grab Necker. We're making that bitch tell us everything she did here for Luthor and A.I.M. And don't forget the Ripoff Brigade is still 'healing' out there, so let's make it snappy." Everyone nodded, and Venom, Spider-Girl, and Thunderstrike pried Necker off of where the webbing stuck her, and 'escorted' her to the Titans' current mode of air transportation, the redhead struggling and trying to break free.

"Let me go, you…you…freaks!" she finally spat, which earned her a very harsh glare from the demonic speedster ahead of her. "Uhm…ah….uhhhh…s-sorry?" she said meekly, the eyeless gaze of Speed Demon quickly changing her attitude.

Everyone then shared a sigh as they bored the jet, and headed back to the Tower. The last words Death's Head said before he climbed on were "Come on, kids. At least you guys get to go back to bed. I have to babysit this idiotic cyberneticist all night…" The teens chuckled, Necker growled until she was glared at again, and then the jet lifted off into the air, and made its way back to Titans Island, everyone lost in thought.

* * *

End Notes: And so we draw this arc to a close, with the next chapter. I hope you've all enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. And yeah, it's another cliffhanger. Sorry, I'm just used to writing these fanfics like that. 


End file.
